Elizabeth Wetmore

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

Nevada

A Novel

Written with the haunting emotional power of Elizabeth Strout and Barbara Kingsolver, an astonishing debut novel that explores the lingering effects of a brutal crime on the women of one small Texas oil town in the 1970s. Mercy is hard in a place like this . . . It's February 1976, and Odessa, Texas, stands on the cusp of the next great oil boom. While the town's men embrace the coming prosperity, its women intimately know and fear the violence that always seems to follow. In the early hours of the morning after Valentine's Day, fourteen-year-old Gloria Ramírez appears on the front porch of Mary Rose Whitehead's ranch house, broken and barely alive. The teenager had been viciously attacked in a nearby oil field--an act of brutality that is tried in the churches and barrooms of Odessa before it can reach a court of law. When justice is evasive, one of the town's women decides to take matters into her own hands, setting the stage for a showdown with potentially devastating consequences. Valentine is a haunting exploration of the intersections of violence and race, class and region in a story that plumbs the depths of darkness and fear, yet offers a window into beauty and hope. Told through the alternating points of view of indelible characters who burrow deep in the reader's heart, this fierce, unflinching, darkly funny, and surprisingly tender novel illuminates women's strength and vulnerability, and reminds us that it is the stories we tell ourselves that keep us alive.

Valentine

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Ari Folman

New Mexico

A new graphic novel that brings to life Kitty, Anne Frank's imaginary friend to whom she addressed her diary—from the same creative team that produced the international bestselling and award-winning Anne Frank's Diary: The Graphic Adaptation It’s the middle of the night at the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, and a magnificent thunderbolt has just struck the building and shattered the protective glass case in which the most famous diary in history is displayed. Magically, Anne’s imaginary friend, Kitty, comes to life. At first Kitty doesn’t know that seventy-five years have passed, and she has no clue as to why Anne is not in the house or what has become of the seven other inhabitants of the Secret Annex. When Kitty learns that Anne and her beloved sister Margot have died in the war, she decides to run away from the house, and follow the path of the sisters all the way to where they met their fatal end. Kitty, who soon realizes that she cannot exist without Anne, decides to steal the diary from the museum and starts her journey. Kitty recounts the complete story of Anne Frank's life, family, and diary from her own unique perspective. In the present day Kitty's adventures bring her in contact with the refugee crisis in Europe, from which she discovers the true meaning of Anne Frank's legacy. PART OF PANTHEON GRAPHIC LIBRARY

Where Is Anne Frank

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Pennsylvania

Assassin's Code

To read or not to read? With a pulse-pounding historical thriller series like The Shakespeare Plot there’s really only one answer! Journey back in time to danger-filled Elizabethan London. Alice Fletcher is a stagehand at the Globe theatre. When her brother, Richard, goes missing, Alice seeks him with the help of Tom Cavendish, servant to the power–hungry Earl of Essex. Packed with a heady Elizabethan atmosphere of political scheming, romance and murder. The swiftly paced, suspenseful plot will keep young readers on the edge of their seats while giving them an insight into the history of Shakespeare’s England.

The Shakespeare Plot 1: Assassin's Code

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Janis Owens

Ohio

JOLIE HOYT IS A GOOD SOUTHERN GIRL living in Hendrix, a small Florida Panhandle town. The daughter of a Pentecostal preacher who sells insurance on the side, and the best friend of a lively beauty who moves to the big city to pursue a career in interior design, Jolie is all too aware of her family’s closet full of secrets and long-held distrust of outsiders. Nevertheless, she throws caution to the wind when she meets Sam Lense, a Jewish anthropology student from Miami, who is in town to study the ethnic makeup of the region. Jolie and Sam fall recklessly in love and dream of beginning a life together, far away from Jolie’s buried past. But their affair ends abruptly when Sam is discovered to have pried too deeply into Hendrix’s dark racial history and he becomes the latest victim in a long tradition of small-town violence. Twelve years later, when a black businessman from Memphis returns to Hendrix to do right by his father’s memory, Jolie and Sam are brought together again. They are forced to revisit the unresolved issues of their young love and finally shed light on the ugly history of Jolie’s hometown. A complex and compulsively readable Southern saga, continuing in the tradition established by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and brought into the new millennium by writers like Karen Russell and Kathryn Stockett, American Ghost was inspired by Janis Owens’s extensive research on a real lynching that occurred in 1934 in Marianna, Florida. American Ghost is a richly woven exploration of how the events of our past haunt our present.

American Ghost

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#hardcover #ya #historical #bookclub #botm #pioneer #fiction #youngadult #love #america


Washington

Spanning several decades in seventeenth century Great Britain and America, this “impressive piece of work, rich in historical detail and human insight” (The Sunday Times) is an unforgettable love story exploring the power of nature versus man and man versus woman. I am an engineer and a measured man of the world. I prefer to weigh everything in the balance, to calculate and to plan. Yet my own heart is going faster than I can now count. In 1649, Jan Brunt arrives in Great Britain from the Netherlands to work on draining and developing an expanse of marshy wetlands known as the Great Level. It is here in this wild country that he meets Eliza, a local woman whose love overturns his ordered vision. Determined to help her strive beyond her situation, Jan is heedless of her devotion to her home and way of life. When she uses the education Jan has given her to sabotage his work, Eliza is brutally punished, and Jan flees to the New World. In the American colonies, profiteers on Manatus Eyland are hungry for viable land to develop, and Jan’s skills as an engineer are highly prized. His prosperous new life is rattled, however, on a spring morning when a boy delivers a note that prompts him to remember the Great Level, and confront all that was lost there. Eliza has made it to the New World and is once again using the education Jan gave her to bend the landscape—this time to find her own place of freedom. A “story of passion, possession, and a painful education in love” (Sarah Dunant, author of In the Name of the Family), Call Upon the Water is an adventure, an unusual and intelligent love story, and a powerful comment on the relationship between humans and the environment. “Richly involving…rousing and heroic” (The Guardian), this unforgettable historical novel is perfect for fans of Hilary Mantel, Geraldine Brooks, and Philippa Gregory. *Note: This book was published in the UK under the title The Great Level.

Call upon the Water

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Patricia C. McKissack

Missouri

The Diary of Nellie Lee Love, the Great Migration North, Chicago, Illinois, 1919

Eleven-year-old Nellie Lee Love records in her diary the events of 1919, when her family moves from Tennessee to Chicago, hoping to leave the racism and hatred of the South behind.

Color Me Dark

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Eleanor Herman

South Dakota

"After winning his first battle, Prince Alexander fights to become the ruler his kingdom demands--but the line between leader and tyrant blurs with each new threat. Meanwhile, Hephaestion, cast aside by Alexander for killing the wrong man, must conceal the devastating secret of a divine prophecy from Katerina even as the two of them are thrust together on a dangerous mission to Egypt. The warrior Jacob, determined to forget his first love, vows to eradicate the ancient Blood Magics and believes that royal prisoner Cynane holds the key to Macedon's undoing. And in chains, the Persian princess Zofia still longs to find the Spirit Eaters, but first must grapple with the secrets of her handsome--and deadly--captor"--Dust jacket flap.

Empire of Dust

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#hardcover #christianity #history #christian #historical #church #nonfiction #religion #religiousstudies #jesus 

Heavy Hardcover (2 to 4 lbs)

Oregon

A History of Christianity

From the birth of Jesus to the present day, a beautifully illustrated chronicle traces the history of Christianity, discussing the various movements, events, teachings, and personalities that have shaped the course of the Christian church.

The Faith

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Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

New Jersey

A Novel 

Button Man

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Sandra Brown

Alabama

A new page-turning historical thriller set in Prohibition-era Texas, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Sandra Brown​.

Blind Tiger

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Kate Alcott

Iowa

Taking a job at the studio where David O. Selznick is filming Gone with the Wind, Julie Crawford becomes an assistant to Carole Lombard, a rising actress from Julie's hometown who embarks on a scandalous affair with Clark Gable. By the New York Times best-selling author of The Dressmaker. 75,000 first printing.

A Touch of Stardust

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#hardcover #historical #johnhenry #learning #socialstudies

New York

Retells the life of the legendary African American hero who raced against a steam drill to cut through a mountain.

John Henry

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Shawna Yang Ryan

Florida

A mesmerizing story of a community of Chinese immigrants in a small California town in 1928, weaving history and mythology around the lives of the townspeople and the ghosts who haunt them

Locke, CA, 1928— Three bedraggled Chinese women suddenly appear out of the mist one afternoon in a small Chinese farming town on the Sacramento River, and their arrival throws the community into confusion. Two of the women are unknown to the townspeople, while the third is the long-lost wife of Richard Fong, the handsome manager of the local gambling parlor, who had left her behind in China many years earlier and had not yet returned for her.

Richard’s wife’s unexpected arrival complicates his life in no small way—not least with two prostitutes at the local brothel he frequents. One, the beautiful young Chloe, depends on him but has eyes for someone else, someone even more forbidden—the local preacher’s daughter. The other, Poppy, the psychic madam of the brothel, is desperately in love with him, and she begins to sink into despair as he grows further and further away from her.

As the lives of the townspeople become inextricably intertwined with the newly arrived women, Poppy’s premonitions begin to foretell a deep unhappiness for all involved. And when a flood threatens the livelihood of the entire town, the frightening power of these mysterious women who arrived in the mist will be revealed.

Shawna Yang Ryan’s melodic first novel is a passionate, sophisticated intertwining of fact and fiction that examines mingling cultures, modern myths, and forgotten history. Locke 1928beautifully chronicles separation and betrayal, loneliness and longing, and what happens when a Chinese ghost story begins to come true.

Water Ghosts

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Kate Atkinson

The stunning companion to Kate Atkinson's #1 bestseller Life After Life, "one of the best novels I've read this century" (Gillian Flynn). "He had been reconciled to death during the war and then suddenly the war was over and there was a next day and a next day. Part of him never adjusted to having a future." Kate Atkinson's dazzling Life After Life explored the possibility of infinite chances and the power of choices, following Ursula Todd as she lived through the turbulent events of the last century over and over again. A GOD IN RUINS tells the dramatic story of the 20th Century through Ursula's beloved younger brother Teddy--would-be poet, heroic pilot, husband, father, and grandfather-as he navigates the perils and progress of a rapidly changing world. After all that Teddy endures in battle, his greatest challenge is living in a future he never expected to have. An ingenious and moving exploration of one ordinary man's path through extraordinary times, A GOD IN RUINS proves once again that Kate Atkinson is one of the finest novelists of our age.

A God in Ruins

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Danielle Steel

West Virginia

The Good Fight

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Three Tales from Youth

In this brilliant collection of "long short stories, " the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Sophie's Choice returns to the coastal Virginia setting of his first novels. Through the eyes of a man recollecting three episodes from his youth, William Styron explores with new eloquence death, loss, war, and racism. From the Trade Paperback edition.

A Tidewater Morning

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Juliet Grames

New Hampshire

For Stella Fortuna, death has always been a part of life. Stella’s childhood is full of strange, life-threatening incidents—moments where ordinary situations like cooking eggplant or feeding the pigs inexplicably take lethal turns. Even Stella’s own mother is convinced that her daughter is cursed or haunted. In her rugged Italian village, Stella is considered an oddity—beautiful and smart, insolent and cold. Stella uses her peculiar toughness to protect her slower, plainer baby sister Tina from life’s harshest realities. But she also provokes the ire of her father Antonio: a man who demands subservience from women and whose greatest gift to his family is his absence. When the Fortunas emigrate to America on the cusp of World War II, Stella and Tina must come of age side-by-side in a hostile new world with strict expectations for each of them. Soon Stella learns that her survival is worthless without the one thing her family will deny her at any cost: her independence. In present-day Connecticut, one family member tells this heartrending story, determined to understand the persisting rift between the now-elderly Stella and Tina. A richly told debut, The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna is a tale of family transgressions as ancient and twisted as the olive branch that could heal them.

The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna

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#hardcover #nonfiction #abrahamlincoln #history #historical #political #politics #biography #truestory 

Indiana

Lincoln and the Todds, a Family Divided by War

Addressing the personal costs of a family divided by the Civil War, a historian focuses on Mary Todd Lincoln's family, whose loyalties were split between the Union and Confederacy, examining the influence of the Todd family saga on how Lincoln approached the war and his humanistic dealings with the shared tragedy on both sides of the Civil War.

House of Abraham

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#hardcover #fiction #ya #youngadult #historical #historicalfiction 

For fans of rich and complex historical novels like Girl with a Pearl Earring or Code Name Verity, Laura Malone Elliott delivers the stunning tale of real-life Renaissance woman Ginevra de' Benci, the inspiration for one of Leonardo da Vinci's earliest masterpieces. The young and beautiful daughter of a wealthy family, Ginevra longs to share her poetry and participate in the artistic ferment of Renaissance Florence but is trapped in an arranged marriage in a society dictated by men. The arrival of the charismatic Venetian ambassador, Bernardo Bembo, introduces Ginevra to a dazzling circle of patrons, artists, and philosophers. Bembo chooses Ginevra as his Platonic muse and commissions a portrait of her by a young Leonardo da Vinci. Posing for the brilliant painter inspires an intimate connection between them, one Ginevra only begins to understand. In a rich and vivid world of exquisite art with a dangerous underbelly of deadly political feuds, Ginevra faces many challenges to discover her voice and artistic companionship—and to find love.

Da Vinci's Tiger

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L. M. Elliott

Maryland

William Dietrich

"An utterly captivating romp from the treacherous tunnels beneath Jerusalem to the lost City of Ghosts (Petra, Jordan) to the tumult of revolutionary Paris....Dietrich spins a merry magical mystery tour, winningly intricate and anchored to actual historical figures and events....Mr. Spielberg! Mr. Lucas! It's your move."
--Seattle Times
 
Dashing and courageous American adventurer Ethan Gage returns in William Dietrich's The Rosetta Key--the thrilling sequel to the Pulitzer Prize-winning author's acclaimed Napoleon's Pyramids. An eighteenth century Indiana Jones, Gage swashbuckles once again, this time in pursuit of a precious Egyptian relic that would give its owner the power to rule the world. The Rosetta Key an adventure in reading that is not to be missed, especially by fans of George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman novels and aficionados of a grand literary tradition dating back to Jack London, Robert Lewis Stevenson, and H. Rider Haggard, and carried on today by such notables as James Rollins, David Liss, Steve Berry, and Kate Mosse.


The Rosetta Key

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Virginia

Viper Wine

Sisters in Arms  

#historical #historicalfiction #fiction #hardcover #histfic #ireland #gardencafe #librarian

Oklahoma

The second in Felicity Hayes-McCoy's Finfarran Peninsula series, and the sequel to The Library at the Edge of the World—a heartwarming story about secrets between four generations of Irish women, and the healing powers of books, love, and friendship. The Garden Café, next to Lissbeg library, is a place where plans are formed and secrets shared, and where, even in high tourist season, people are never too busy to stop for a sandwich and a cup of tea. But twenty-one-year-old Jazz—daughter of the town’s librarian Hanna Casey—has a secret she can’t share. Still recovering from a car accident, and reeling from her father’s disclosures about his long-time affair, she’s taken a job at The Old Forge guesthouse, and begun to develop feelings for a man who’s strictly off-limits. Meanwhile, involved in her own new affair with architect Brian Morton, Hanna is unaware of the turmoil in Jazz’s life—until her manipulative ex-husband, Malcom, reappears trying to mend his relationship with their daughter. Rebuffed at every turn, Malcolm must return to London, but his mother, Louisa, is on the case. Unbeknown to the rest of the family, she hatches a plan, finding an unlikely ally in Hanna’s mother, the opinionated Mary Casey. Watching Jazz unravel, Hanna begins to wonder if secrets which Malcolm has forced her to keep may have harmed their beloved daughter more than she’d realized. But then, the Casey women are no strangers to secrets, something Hanna realizes when she discovers a journal, long buried in land she inherited from her great-aunt Maggie. Ultimately, it’s the painful lessons of the past that offer a way to the future, but it will take the shared experiences of four generations of women to find a way forward for Hanna and her family.

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Elizabeth Wetmore

Valentine

Ari Folman

Where Is Anne Frank

Alex Woolf

The Shakespeare Plot 1: Assassin's Code

Janis Owens

American Ghost

Stella Tillyard

Call upon the Water

Patricia C. McKissack

Color Me Dark

Eleanor Herman

Empire of Dust

Brian Moynahan

The Faith

Andrew Gross

Button Man

Sandra Brown

Blind Tiger

Kate Alcott

A Touch of Stardust

Julius Lester; Jerry Pinkney (Illustrator)

John Henry

Shawna Yang Ryan

Water Ghosts

Kate Atkinson

A God in Ruins

Danielle Steel

The Good Fight

William Styron

A Tidewater Morning

Juliet Grames

The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna

Stephen Berry

House of Abraham

L. M. Elliott

Da Vinci's Tiger

L. M. Elliott

Da Vinci's Tiger

William Dietrich

The Rosetta Key

Hermione Eyre

Viper Wine

Kaia Alderson

Sisters in Arms

Felicity Hayes-McCoy

Summer at the Garden Cafe