Mary Lawson

Crow Lake is that rare find, a first novel so quietly assured, so emotionally pitch perfect, you know from the opening page that this is the real thing—a literary experience in which to lose yourself, by an author of immense talent.

Here is a gorgeous, slow-burning story set in the rural “badlands” of northern Ontario, where heartbreak and hardship are mirrored in the landscape. For the farming Pye family, life is a Greek tragedy where the sins of the fathers are visited on the sons, and terrible events occur—offstage.

Centerstage are the Morrisons, whose tragedy looks more immediate if less brutal, but is, in reality, insidious and divisive. Orphaned young, Kate Morrison was her older brother Matt’s protegee, her fascination for pond life fed by his passionate interest in the natural world. Now a zoologist, she can identify organisms under a microscope but seems blind to the state of her own emotional life. And she thinks she’s outgrown her siblings—Luke, Matt, and Bo—who were once her entire world.

In this universal drama of family love and misunderstandings, of resentments harbored and driven underground, Lawson ratchets up the tension with heartbreaking humor and consummate control, continually overturning one’s expectations right to the very end. Tragic, funny, unforgettable, Crow Lake is a quiet tour de force that will catapult Mary Lawson to the forefront of fiction writers today

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Texas

A Novel

Crow Lake is that rare find, a first novel so quietly assured, so emotionally pitch perfect, you know from the opening page that this is the real thing—a literary experience in which to lose yourself, by an author of immense talent. Here is a gorgeous, slow-burning story set in the rural “badlands” of northern Ontario, where heartbreak and hardship are mirrored in the landscape. For the farming Pye family, life is a Greek tragedy where the sins of the fathers are visited on the sons, and terrible events occur—offstage. Centerstage are the Morrisons, whose tragedy looks more immediate if less brutal, but is, in reality, insidious and divisive. Orphaned young, Kate Morrison was her older brother Matt’s protegee, her fascination for pond life fed by his passionate interest in the natural world. Now a zoologist, she can identify organisms under a microscope but seems blind to the state of her own emotional life. And she thinks she’s outgrown her siblings—Luke, Matt, and Bo—who were once her entire world. In this universal drama of family love and misunderstandings, of resentments harbored and driven underground, Lawson ratchets up the tension with heartbreaking humor and consummate control, continually overturning one’s expectations right to the very end. Tragic, funny, unforgettable, Crow Lake is a quiet tour de force that will catapult Mary Lawson to the forefront of fiction writers today.

Crow Lake

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#mystery #detective #rennieairth #notablebook #johnmadden #scotlandyard #England #thriller. Nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Novel. Paperback book in very good condition 

Maryland

The First John Madden Mystery

Tormented by his harrowing wartime experiences and the loss of his family, Inspector John Madden is sent by Scotland Yard to investigate when a small Surrey village is torn apart by five horrific murders and joins forces with a beautiful doctor to capture the killer, a demented veteran of World War I. A first novel. Reprint.

River of Darkness

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David Guterson

Massachusetts

Sixteen-year-old runaway and unlikely spiritual candidate Ann Holmes, surviving by living in a tent and working as an itinerant mushroom picker, experiences a vision of the Virgin Mary in the foggy woods of a Washington November morning. By the author of Snow Falling on Cedars. Reader's Guide available. Reprint. 100,000 first printing.

Our Lady of the Forest

60e91ea4-b46d-4406-931f-8f9ac2805124-1

Kamila Shamsie

South Carolina

“Ingenious… Builds to one of the most memorable final scenes I’ve read in a novel this century.” —The New York Times WINNER OF THE 2018 WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION FINALIST FOR THE 2019 INTERNATIONAL DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE The suspenseful and heartbreaking story of an immigrant family driven to pit love against loyalty, with devastating consequences Isma is free. After years of watching out for her younger siblings in the wake of their mother’s death, she’s accepted an invitation from a mentor in America that allows her to resume a dream long deferred. But she can’t stop worrying about Aneeka, her beautiful, headstrong sister back in London, or their brother, Parvaiz, who’s disappeared in pursuit of his own dream, to prove himself to the dark legacy of the jihadist father he never knew. When he resurfaces half a globe away, Isma’s worst fears are confirmed. Then Eamonn enters the sisters’ lives. Son of a powerful political figure, he has his own birthright to live up to—or defy. Is he to be a chance at love? The means of Parvaiz’s salvation? Suddenly, two families’ fates are inextricably, devastatingly entwined, in this searing novel that asks: What sacrifices will we make in the name of love?

Home Fire

4050c546-a04a-4c07-a235-44739ebfa4b1-1

Illinois

Anthony Marra

Some very light edge wear (pictured), like-new otherwise. Deckled edge.

Vermont

In December 2004 in a rural village in Chechnya, failed doctor Akhmed harbors the traumatized eight-year-old daughter of a man abducted by Russian forces and treats a series of wounded refugees while exploring the shared past that binds him to the child.

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena

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#paperback #nonfiction #faith #amazinggrace #bestseller #christianity #kathleennorris #notablebook 

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

New York

A Vocabulary of Faith

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR From the New York Times-bestselling author of The Cloister Walk, a book about Christianity, spirituality, and rediscovered faith. Struggling with her return to the Christian church after many years away, Kathleen Norris found it was the language of Christianity that most distanced her from faith. Words like "judgment," "faith," "dogma," "salvation," "sinner"—even "Christ"—formed what she called her "scary vocabulary," words that had become so codified or abstract that their meanings were all but impenetrable. She found she had to wrestle with them and make them her own before they could confer their blessings and their grace. Blending history, theology, storytelling, etymology, and memoir, Norris uses these words as a starting point for reflection, and offers a moving account of her own gradual conversion. She evokes a rich spirituality rooted firmly in the chaos of everyday life—and offers believers and doubters alike an illuminating perspective on how we can embrace ancient traditions and find faith in the contemporary world.

Amazing Grace

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Ali Smith

Connecticut

"Fusing Keatsian mists and mellow fruitfulness with the vitality, the immediacy, and the color hit of pop art, Autumn is [an] ... excavation of the present by the past. The novel is a stripped-branches take on popular culture and a meditation--in a world growing ever more bordered and exclusive--on what richness and worth are, what harvest means"--

Autumn

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Jean Craighead George

Mississippi

Ten-year-old Willy needs to win the big dogsled race in order to pay the back taxes on his grandfather's farm, but that means beating the huge Indian mountain man, Stone Fox. The fast-paced narrative will enthrall young readers.

My Side of the Mountain

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There is a tiny bit of creasing on the outer edges of the cover. Barely noticeable. there are no writings, markings or highlights in this book. Smoke free home, pet free home.

Michel Faber

Called to a mission of a lifetime, Peter travels light-years from his wife, Bea, to an astonishing new environment. He's to preach to
a seemingly friendly native population struggling with a dangerous illness and hungry for Peter's teachings. But when Bea's letters from home become increasingly desperate-natural disasters are rampant and governments are crum-bling-
-her faith begins to falter. Peter, rattled and heartsick, is forced to choose: historic humanitarian work, or the love of his life.
Replete with emotional complexity and bravura storytelling, The Book of Strange New Things is a powerful and haunting meditation on faith, love, and devotion.

Alabama

A monumental, genre-defying novel that David Mitchell calls "Michel Faber's second masterpiece," The Book of Strange New Things is a masterwork from a writer in full command of his many talents. It begins with Peter, a devoted man of faith, as he is called to the mission of a lifetime, one that takes him galaxies away from his wife, Bea. Peter becomes immersed in the mysteries of an astonishing new environment, overseen by an enigmatic corporation known only as USIC. His work introduces him to a seemingly friendly native population struggling with a dangerous illness and hungry for Peter's teachings--his Bible is their "book of strange new things." But Peter is rattled when Bea's letters from home become increasingly desperate: typhoons and earthquakes are devastating whole countries, and governments are crumbling. Bea's faith, once the guiding light of their lives, begins to falter. Suddenly, a separation measured by an otherworldly distance, and defined both by one newly discovered world and another in a state of collapse, is threatened by an ever-widening gulf that is much less quantifiable. While Peter is reconciling the needs of his congregation with the desires of his strange employer, Bea is struggling for survival. Their trials lay bare a profound meditation on faith, love tested beyond endurance, and our responsibility to those closest to us. Marked by the same bravura storytelling and precise language that made The Crimson Petal and the White such an international success, The Book of Strange New Things is extraordinary, mesmerizing, and replete with emotional complexity and genuine pathos. From the Hardcover edition.

The Book of Strange New Things

6805b71f-c8b5-4f0f-914c-4adec822d84e-1

Oklahoma

Kiese Laymon

California

An American Memoir

*Named a Best Book of 2018 by the New York Times, Publishers Weekly, NPR, Broadly, Buzzfeed (Nonfiction), The Undefeated, Library Journal (Biography/Memoirs), The Washington Post (Nonfiction), Southern Living (Southern), Entertainment Weekly, and The New York Times Critics* In this powerful, provocative, and universally lauded memoir—winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal and finalist for the Kirkus Prize—genre-bending essayist and novelist Kiese Laymon “provocatively meditates on his trauma growing up as a black man, and in turn crafts an essential polemic against American moral rot” (Entertainment Weekly). In Heavy, Laymon writes eloquently and honestly about growing up a hard-headed black son to a complicated and brilliant black mother in Jackson, Mississippi. From his early experiences of sexual violence, to his suspension from college, to time in New York as a college professor, Laymon charts his complex relationship with his mother, grandmother, anorexia, obesity, sex, writing, and ultimately gambling. Heavy is a “gorgeous, gutting…generous” (The New York Times) memoir that combines personal stories with piercing intellect to reflect both on the strife of American society and on Laymon’s experiences with abuse. By attempting to name secrets and lies he and his mother spent a lifetime avoiding, he asks us to confront the terrifying possibility that few in this nation actually know how to responsibly love, and even fewer want to live under the weight of actually becoming free. “A book for people who appreciated Roxane Gay’s memoir Hunger” (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel), Heavy is defiant yet vulnerable, an insightful, often comical exploration of weight, identity, art, friendship, and family through years of haunting implosions and long reverberations. “You won’t be able to put [this memoir] down…It is packed with reminders of how black dreams get skewed and deferred, yet are also pregnant with the possibility that a kind of redemption may lie in intimate grappling with black realities” (The Atlantic).

Heavy

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Paula Fox

Kentucky

Eleven-year-old Clay Garrity is on his own. His father lost his job and left the family. Now Clay's mother is gone from their welfare hotel. Clay is homeless and out on the streets of New York. In the park he meets two homeless men. Buddy and Calvin become Clay's new family during those harsh winter weeks. But the streets are filled with danger and despair. If Clay leaves the streets he may never find his parents again. But if he stays on the streets he may not survive at all.

Monkey Island

e414f009-a9bc-4c84-91e4-22708136f681-1

Tennessee

#paperback #fiction #educational #newbery #adventure #notablebook #oldlibrarybook 

New Hampshire

Kate Atkinson

Rhode Island

A family saga chronicles a century of life as four generations of Yorkshire women move through two World Wars, coronations, secrets, heartbreak, and happiness, all seen through the eyes of Ruby Lennox

Behind the Scenes at the Museum

50dc5693-8773-4856-845b-8e52c9bb10ae-1

Ann Patchett

Little bit of wear on the cover but otherwise clean and unmarked. 

Michigan

#1 New York Times Bestseller

The acclaimed, bestselling author—winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize—tells the enthralling story of how an unexpected romantic encounter irrevocably changes two families’ lives.

One Sunday afternoon in Southern California, Bert Cousins shows up at Franny Keating’s christening party uninvited. Before evening falls, he has kissed Franny’s mother, Beverly—thus setting in motion the dissolution of their marriages and the joining of two families.

Spanning five decades, Commonwealth explores how this chance encounter reverberates through the lives of the four parents and six children involved. Spending summers together in Virginia, the Keating and Cousins children forge a lasting bond that is based on a shared disillusionment with their parents and the strange and genuine affection that grows up between them.

When, in her twenties, Franny begins an affair with the legendary author Leon Posen and tells him about her family, the story of her siblings is no longer hers to control. Their childhood becomes the basis for his wildly successful book, ultimately forcing them to come to terms with their losses, their guilt, and the deeply loyal connection they feel for one another.

Told with equal measures of humor and heartbreak, Commonwealth is a meditation on inspiration, interpretation, and the ownership of stories. It is a brilliant and tender tale of the far-reaching ties of love and responsibility that bind us together.

Commonwealth

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South Dakota

New York Times notable book

The Pickup

Vicki Croke

New Jersey

The Inspiring Story of an Unlikely Hero and the Animals Who Helped Him Save Lives in World War II

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK

The remarkable story of James Howard "Billy" Williams, whose uncanny rapport with the world's largest land animals transformed him from a carefree young man into the charismatic war hero known as Elephant Bill

In 1920, Billy Williams came to colonial Burma as a "forest man" for a British teak company. Mesmerized by the intelligence and character of the great animals who hauled logs through the jungle, he became a gifted "elephant wallah." In Elephant Company, Vicki Constantine Croke chronicles Williams's growing love for elephants as the animals provide him lessons in courage, trust, and gratitude.

Elephant Company is also a tale of war and daring. When Japanese forces invaded Burma in 1942, Williams joined the elite British Force 136 and operated behind enemy lines. His war elephants carried supplies, helped build bridges, and transported the sick and elderly over treacherous mountain terrain. As the occupying authorities put a price on his head, Williams and his elephants faced their most perilous test. Elephant Company, cornered by the enemy, attempted a desperate escape: a risky trek over the mountainous border to India, with a bedraggled group of refugees in tow. Part biography, part war epic, Elephant Company is an inspirational narrative that illuminates a little-known chapter in the annals of wartime heroism.

Praise for Elephant Company

"This book is about far more than just the war, or even elephants. This is the story of friendship, loyalty and breathtaking bravery that transcends species. . . . Elephant Company is nothing less than a sweeping tale, masterfully written."--Sara Gruen, The New York Times Book Review

"Splendid . . . Blending biography, history, and wildlife biology, [Vicki Constantine] Croke's story is an often moving account of [Billy] Williams, who earned the sobriquet 'Elephant Bill,' and his unusual bond with the largest land mammals on earth."--The Boston Globe

"Some of the biggest heroes of World War II were even bigger than you thought. . . . You may never call the lion the king of the jungle again."--New York Post

"Vicki Constantine Croke delivers an exciting tale of this elephant whisperer-cum-war hero, while beautifully reminding us of the enduring bonds between animals and humans."--Mitchell Zuckoff, author of Lost in Shangri-La and Frozen in Time

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Mary Lawson

Crow Lake

Rennie Airth

River of Darkness

David Guterson

Our Lady of the Forest

Kamila Shamsie

Home Fire

Mary Lawson

Crow Lake

Anthony Marra

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena

Kathleen Norris

Amazing Grace

Ali Smith

Autumn

Jean Craighead George

My Side of the Mountain

Kamila Shamsie

Home Fire

Anthony Marra

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena

Michel Faber

The Book of Strange New Things

Jean Craighead George

My Side of the Mountain

Kiese Laymon

Heavy

Paula Fox

Monkey Island

Anthony Marra

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena

Jean Craighead George

My Side of the Mountain

Jean Craighead George

My Side of the Mountain

Kate Atkinson

Behind the Scenes at the Museum

Ann Patchett

Commonwealth

Jean Craighead George

My Side of the Mountain

Nadine Gordimer

The Pickup

Vicki Croke

Elephant Company

Mary Lawson

Crow Lake