March Books

FICTION

Gods of Howl Mountain, by Taylor Brown

This is the third novel by the acclaimed author of The River of Kings and Fallen Land set in the high country of 1950s North Carolina. Gods of Howl Mountain is a dark and compelling story of family secrets, whiskey running, vengeance and love. Maybelline Docherty, “Granny May,” is a folk healer with a dark past. She concocts potions and cures for the people of the mountains — her powers rumored to rival those of a wood witch — while watching over her grandson, Rory Docherty, who has returned from the Korean War with a wooden leg and nightmares of the Battle of Chosin Reservoir. Rory runs bootleg whiskey in a high-powered car to roadhouses, brothels and private clients in the mill town at the foot of the mountains. With gritty and atmospheric prose, Brown brings to life a perilous mountain and the family who rules it, tying together past and present in one captivating narrative.

What You Don’t Know about Charlie Outlaw, by Leah Stewart

After a series of missteps in the face of his newfound fame, actor Charlie Outlaw flees to a remote island in search of anonymity and a chance to reevaluate his recent breakup with his girlfriend, actress Josie Lamar. Soon after his arrival on the peaceful island, his solitary hike into the jungle takes him into danger he never anticipated. As Charlie struggles with gaining fame, Josie struggles with its loss. The star of a cult TV show in her early 20s, Josie has spent the two decades since searching for a role to equal that one, and feeling less and less like her character, the heroic Bronwyn Kyle. As she gets ready for a reunion of the cast at a huge fan convention, she thinks all she needs to do is find a part and replace Charlie. But she can’t forget him, and to get him back she’ll need to be a hero in real life.

Tangerine, by Christine Mangan 

Lucy Mason was the last person Alice Shipley expected to see since arriving in Tangier with her new husband, John. After the accident at Bennington, the two friends — once inseparable roommates — haven’t spoken in over a year. But there Lucy was, trying to make things right and return to their old rhythms. Too afraid to venture out into the bustling medina and oppressive heat, Alice hadn’t adjusted to life in Morocco. Lucy, fearless and independent, helps her emerge from her flat and explore the country. Soon a familiar feeling starts to overtake Alice — she feels controlled and stifled by Lucy at every turn. When John goes missing, Alice starts to question everything around her: her relationship with her enigmatic friend, her decision to come to Tangier, and her own state of mind. Tangerine is a sharp dagger of a book, a tightly wound debut replete with exotic imagery and charm. Full of precise details and extraordinary craftsmanship, it will leave you absolutely breathless.

Caribbean Rim, by Randy Wayne White

Marine biologist Doc Ford has been known to help his friends out of jams, but he’s never faced a situation like this. Murder, sunken treasure and pirates both ancient and modern send Ford on a nightmare quest in this thrilling new novel. His old pal Carl Fitzpatrick has been chasing sunken wrecks most of his life, but now he’s run afoul of the Florida Division of Historical Resources. Its director, Leonard Nickelby, despises amateur archaeologists, which is bad enough, but now he and his young “assistant” have disappeared — along with Fitzpatrick’s impounded cache of rare Spanish coins and the list of uncharted wrecks Fitz spent decades compiling. Some of Fitz’s own explorations have been a little dicey, so he can’t go to the authorities. Doc is his only hope. But greed makes people do terrible things: rob, cheat, even kill. With stakes this high, there’s no way the thieves will go quietly — and Doc just put himself in their crosshairs.

Anatomy of a Miracle, by Jonathan Miles

The last place Private First Class Cameron Harris walked was in a field in the Darah Khujz District of Zabul Province, in Afghanistan. A paraplegic for the last four years, he lives with his older sister, Tanya, in their Biloxi, Mississippi, family home — a narrow, 50-year-old shotgun-style house that wasn’t designed for the turning radius of a wheelchair — in a neighborhood where only half the houses made it through the storm surge of Hurricane Katrina. One hot August afternoon on their daily trip to the Biz-E-Bee convenience store, as Cameron waits outside for Tanya, he suddenly and inexplicably stands up. In the aftermath of this “miracle,” Cameron finds himself a celebrity at the center of a contentious debate about what’s taken place. And when scientists, journalists and a representative from the Vatican start digging, Cameron’s deepest secrets are endangered. Written as a closely observed journalistic rendering, filtered through a wide lens that encompasses the vibrant characters, Anatomy of a Miracle is a remarkable story of the perils of grace.

The Flight Attendant, by Chris Bohjalian

From The New York Times best-selling author of The Guest Room, a powerful story of how an entire life can change in one night when a flight attendant wakes up in the wrong hotel, in the wrong bed, with a dead man — and no idea what happened. Cassandra Bowden is no stranger to morning hangovers. She’s a binge drinker with a taste for adventure who lives with occasional blackouts and the accompanying self-loathing. When she awakens in a Dubai hotel room, she tries to piece together the previous night, counting the minutes until she has to catch her crew shuttle to the airport. She quietly slides out of bed, careful not to aggravate her pounding head, and looks at the man she spent the night with. She sees his dark hair. His utter stillness. And a slick, wet pool of blood on the crisp white sheets. Afraid to call the police, Cassie lies to the other flight attendants and pilots; she lies on the way to Paris as she works the first class cabin; and she lies to the FBI agents in New York who meet her at the gate. Soon it’s too late to come clean. Could she have killed him? If not, who did? The Flight Attendant unveils a spellbinding story of the devastating consequences of addiction, and of murder far from home.

NONFICTION

Educated: A Memoir, by Tara Westover 

The first time Tara Westover set foot in a classroom she was 17 years old. Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, she prepared for the end of the world by stockpiling home-canned peaches and sleeping with her “head-for-the-hills bag.” In the summer she stewed herbs for her mother, a midwife and healer, and in the winter she salvaged in her father’s junkyard. The family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education, and no one to intervene when one of Tara’s older brothers became violent. As a way out, Tara began to educate herself, learning enough mathematics and grammar to be admitted to Brigham Young University. Her quest for knowledge would transform her, taking her to Harvard and, then, Cambridge University. With acute insight, Westover has crafted a universal coming-of-age story that gets to the heart of what an education offers: the perspective to see one’s life through new eyes, and the will to change it.

The Beekeeper: Saving the Stolen Women of Iraq, by Dunya Mikhail, translated by Max Weiss

Since 2014, Daesh (ISIS) has been brutalizing the Yazidi people of Northern Iraq: sowing destruction, killing those who won’t convert to Islam, and enslaving young girls and women. The Beekeeper, by the acclaimed poet and journalist Dunya Mikhail, tells the harrowing stories of several women who lost their families and loved ones, been sexually abused, psychologically tortured, and forced to manufacture chemical weapons. In extensive interviews an unlikely hero emerges: a beekeeper, who uses his knowledge of the local terrain, along with a wide network of transporters, helpers, and former cigarette smugglers, to bring these women, one by one, through the war-torn landscapes of Iraq, Syria, and Turkey, back to safety. In the face of inhuman suffering, this powerful work of nonfiction offers a counterpoint to Daesh’s genocidal extremism: hope, as ordinary people risk their own lives to save those of others.

CHILDREN’S BOOKS

Bears and Blossoms, by Shirley Parenteau

Readers who fell in love with Bears on Chairs will squeal with delight as Big Brown Bear and the four little bears welcome spring with a picnic under flowering trees.  But when a great wind threatens their yummy honey-on-bread lunch, the bears declare, “The Wind is just right!” and set off flying kites.  With rhyming text and delightful illustrations, Bears and Blossoms is the perfect read-together book to celebrate the coming of spring.  (Ages 2-5.)

The Horse’s Haiku, by Michael Rosen

From field to barn to field, the grace, playfulness and beauty of the horse is celebrated through haiku in this stunningly simple, quietly lovely picture book.  Horse lovers of all ages will smile with appreciation at author Michael Rosen’s clever insights into the cool quirkiness of horses and his genuine understanding of the connection between horse and rider told exclusively through haiku.  (Age 6-adult.)

Dory Fantasmagory: Head in the Clouds, 
by Abby Hanlon

You really just can’t help but love Dory Fantasmagory.  One of the newest kids on the chapter book scene, this series has it all:  a fun-loving character, an imaginary best friend, a goofy school buddy, an invisible arch nemesis evil witch and a good kid-problem or two.  In Head in the Clouds, Dory must rebel against the wearing of the horrible “bunchy coat,” contend with an overzealous neat freak playdate, and save the tooth fairy from an imaginary evil witch nemesis.  Chapter books really have never been full of so much fun and adventure. (Ages 7-10.)

Arlo Finch in the Valley of Fire, by John August

Arlo Finch moves to a new town where he joins the Rangers program and learns about the mysterious Long Woods and the magic seeping out from within them. Arlo must face down fierce enemies and help friends in need on his way to becoming a better Ranger.  Filled to the brink with plot twists, turns and surprises throughout. Readers who like fantasy or realistic fiction will adore Arlo — review by Henry Bauer, 12. (Ages 10-14.)

Compiled by Kimberly Daniels Taws and Angie Tally.

January Books

FICTION

Direct Fire, by A.J. Tata

A thriller that cuts to the heart of our cyber-security threat. When Jake Mahegan receives a distress call from Gen. Savage in North Carolina, he rushes to the commander’s home — and walks right into an ambush. Joining forces with Savage’s combat JAG officer, Mahegan follows the trail to a killer, a Syrian refugee-turned-terrorist who vows to avenge the bombing of a Syrian wedding by killing as many Americans as possible. Terrorist cells are gathering in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Hackers are emptying the nation’s banks of millions of dollars. And their final act of vengeance will bring the whole world to its knees. 

Munich: A Novel, by Robert Harris

Hugh Legat is a rising star of the British diplomatic service, serving at 10 Downing Street as private secretary to Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. Rikard von Holz is on the staff of the German Foreign Office — and secretly a member of the anti-Hitler resistance. The two men were friends at Oxford in the 1920s, but have not been in contact since. Now, when Legat flies with Chamberlain from London to Munich, and von Holz travels on Hitler’s train overnight from Berlin, their paths are set on a disastrous collision course. Robert Harris, author of Conspirator: A Novel of Ancient Rome, places characters of historical importance — Hitler, Chamberlain, Mussolini, Daladier — at the heart of an electrifying, novel you can’t put down.

The Woman in the Window, by A.J. Finn 

With captivating prose Finn crafts a novel about a woman who watches her neighbors through the telephoto lens of her camera. After witnessing a brutal attack, her attempts to contact the authorities turn her life into a nightmare. A fantastic thriller where nothing is as it seems.

Need to Know, by Karen Cleveland 

A gripping novel by a CIA insider about an agent tasked with identifying Russian spies living in plain sight. After accessing the computer of a potential Russian operative, Vivian stumbles on a secret dossier of deep-cover agents within America’s borders. A few clicks later, everything that matters to her — her job, her husband, even her four children — is threatened. Vivian becomes torn between loyalty and betrayal, allegiance and treason, love and suspicion. A frightening glimpse into what may be happening today. 

The Chalk Man, by C.J. Tudor

In 1986, Eddie and his friends are just kids on the verge of adolescence in a sleepy little English village. The chalk men are their secret code — little chalk stick figures they leave for one another as messages only they can understand. But then a mysterious chalk man leads them to a dismembered body, and nothing is ever the same. In 2016, Eddie gets a letter in the mail, containing a single chalk stick figure. When it turns out that his childhood friends get the same message, they think it could be a prank . . . until one of them turns up dead. This is a suspense novel of the highest rank where every character is wonderfully compelling, where every mystery has a satisfying payoff, and where the twists will shock even the savviest reader.

The Black Painting, by Neil Olson

There are four cousins in the Morse family, long fractured by the loss of a cursed Goya painting, when their grandfather summons them to his mansion at Owl’s Point. The family finds the old man dead, his horrified gaze pinned on the spot where the painting once hung. As suspects mount in this literary mystery, cousin Teresa hopes to solve the puzzle of the painting and her grandfather’s death, but to do so she must uncover ugly family secrets, and confront those who would keep them hidden.

Green, by Sam Graham-Felsen

Boston, 1992: “House of Pain” is on the radio, Arsenio Hall is on TV, and Bill Clinton is in the White House. The city’s school system is largely segregated and former working-class neighborhoods are in the early stages of gentrification. Dave (or, as he longs to be called, Green) is the white boy at the mostly black Martin Luther King Middle School, where he is lonely, constantly taunted, and desperate to fit in. Dave’s life takes a sudden turn for the better when he befriends Marlon, who lives in the public housing around the corner from Dave’s own gentrified block. Marlon confounds Dave’s assumptions about black culture: He’s nerdy, neurotic and a Celtics fan whose favorite player is the white, skinny Larry Bird. Together, the two boys seem almost able to resist the contradictory personas forced on them by the outside world. But as the school year progresses, challenges arise in the form of girls and bullies, family secrets and national violence, and Marlon and Dave struggle not to betray themselves or each other in this coming-of-age novel.

Fire Sermon, by Jamie Quarto

A daring debut novel of obsession, lust and salvation by the highly lauded author of the story collection I Want To Show You More, Qurto charts with bold intimacy and immersive sensuality the life of a married woman entirely devoted to her husband, Thomas, their two beautiful children, and to God. Devoted, that is, until what begins as a platonic intellectual and spiritual exchange between writer Maggie and poet James transforms into an erotically charged bond that challenges Maggie’s sense of loyalty and morality, drawing her deeper into the darkness of desire.

NONFICTION

Jackie, Janet & Lee: The Secret Lives of Janet Auchincloss and Her Daughters Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Lee Radziwill, by J. Randy Taraborrelli

If the Bouvier women personified beauty, style and fashion, it was their lust for money and status that drove them to seek out powerful men, no matter what the cost to themselves or to those they stepped on in their relentless climb to the top. Based on hundreds of new interviews with friends and family of the Bouviers, among them their own half-brother, as well as letters and journals, Taraborrelli paints an extraordinary psychological portrait of two famous sisters and their ferociously ambitious mother.

The Meaning of Birds, by Simon Barnes

One of our most eloquent nature writers explores how birds achieve the miracle of flight; why birds sing; what they tell us about the seasons of the year; and what their presence tells us about the places they inhabit. The Meaning of Birds muses on the uses of feathers, the drama of raptors, the slaughter of pheasants, the infidelities of geese, and the strangeness of feeling sentimental about blue tits while enjoying a chicken sandwich. Barnes explores both the intrinsic wonder of what it is to be a bird and the myriad ways in which birds can help us understand the meaning of life.

Stirring the Pot with Benjamin Franklin: A Founding Father’s Culinary Adventures, by Rae Katherine Eighmey

In this remarkable work, Eighmey presents Franklin’s delight and experimentation with food throughout his life. At 16, he began dabbling in vegetarianism. In his early 20s, he convinced his printing press colleagues to forgo their breakfast of beer and bread for porridge. He applied his scientific discoveries to the kitchen and ate with curiosity in France and England on his diplomatic missions. Franklin saw food as key to understanding the developing culture of the United States, penning essays presenting maize as the defining grain of America. Stirring the Pot conveys all of this Founding Father’s culinary adventures, demonstrating that his love of food shaped not only his life but also the character of the young nation he helped build.

The Monk of Mokha, by Dave Eggers

From the best-selling author of The Circle and What Is the What, a heart-pounding true story that weaves together the history of coffee, the struggles of everyday Yemenis living through civil war, and the courageous journey of a young man — a Muslim and U.S. citizen — following the most American of dreams.

CHILDREN’S BOOKS

Dear Girl, by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

Sometimes you feel pink and sparkly; sometimes you feel just the opposite.  Sometimes you want to ask: Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?  Sometimes you want to make your room awesome (and sometimes I wish you would just want to make your bed!). Sometimes you are brave and sometimes you are tentative, but whatever you are, you are awesome. From the author of Uni the Unicorn, in this celebration of girl power no obstacle is too high, no dream too big, and no wish too grand for a strong woman. (All ages.) 

I Am Harriet Tubman, by Brad Meltzer, illustrated by Chris Elipoulos

A few years ago, best-selling author and History Channel host Brad Meltzer, motivated by his own experience raising three children, decided to offer them a different kind of hero. He was tired of the princesses and reality stars that people looked up to, and knew from his love of history that there were incredible real world heroes that children would be fascinated by and look up to. The Ordinary People Change the World series was born as a way to give today’s kids the right role models and to encourage them to live heroically. Harriet Tubman, the newest addition to the series, is an American hero who had a pivotal role in the fight against slavery and will become the first African-American woman to have her face appear on American currency when the $20 bill is revamped in 2020. (Available January 16. Ages 6-10.)

Upside-Down Magic: Dragon Overnight, by Sarah Mlynowski, Emily Jenkins and Lauren Myracle

Nory, Elliott, Andres and Bax are classmates in Dunwiddle Magic School’s Upside-Down Magic class. In a classroom in which students all have magical abilities, lessons are unconventional, students are unpredictable, and magic has a tendency to turn wonky at the worst possible moment. Dragon Overnight, will be published Jan. 30 and is the fourth book in the fun Upside-Down Magic series.  Meet the authors Friday, Feb. 2 at 4 p.m. at The Country Bookshop.  This event is free and open to the public. (Ages 7-10.) PS

Compiled by Kimberly Daniels Taws and Angie Tally.

December Books

Our Town 

Southern Sunrises, by Tom Bryant

An endearing collection of Bryant’s “Sporting Life” columns, originally appearing in PineStraw magazine, captures what it is to be Southern and true in these stories of fishing, bird hunting, friends and family. 

The Hamlet Fire: A Tragic Story of Cheap Food, Cheap Government and Cheap Lives, by Bryant Simon

A look at the 1991 fire at the Imperial Foods processing plant in Hamlet reveals much about the state of the food industry in America. The investigative reporting by Simon suggests local lore surrounding the tragic fire is incorrect. Worth a read. 

Spiderella: The Girl who Spoke with Spiders, by Romey Petite and Laurel Holden 

This is a surefire gift for little ones of all ages. A collaboration of two Southern Pines artists and storytellers, it’s a modern version of the Cinderella theme with illustrations and costumes that stay with you long after the book is closed.

Coffee Table

The Authentics: A Lush Dive Into the Substance of Style, by Melanie Acevedo and Dara Caponigro

The best coffee table book of the year by the founding editor of Domino magazine. The photographs of the graceful spaces and the people who inhabit them are beautiful, but this book is made readable by the interviews with each “Authentic.” A wonderful addition in your living room. 

Vogue Living: Country, City, Coast edited, by Hamish Bowles and Chloe Malle

This collection of Vogue homes from 2008 to 2016 showcases the magazine’s brilliant and varied photography. Similar to the Vogue Weddings: Brides, Dresses, Designers from 2012, this is sure to be a staple for appreciators of elegance. 

Stocking Stuffers

You Look Better Online: Your Life in 150 Unfiltered Cartoons, by Emmet Truxes 

This stocking-sized book is full of truths about modern life that will have adults, young and old, giggling through Christmas morning and beyond.

365 Days of Firsts: A Daily Record of Baby’s First Year 

A little book to help new parents record each memorable milestone. Attractive, with quick dates and a few lines to fill in as the newborn grows up, this is a fantastic (and easy) way to chronicle the treasures of life. 

Biography 

Bunny Mellon: The Life of an American Style Legend, by Meryl Gordon

The story of the trendsetting Bunny Mellon, the designer of the White House Rose Garden, is full of family secrets, politics, art and fashion among America’s 20th century elite.

Churchill and Orwell: The Fight For Freedom, by Thomas E. Ricks

A dual biography of Winston Churchill and George Orwell, two of the most important people in British history who shared the vision and courage to campaign tirelessly, in words and in deeds, against the totalitarian threat from both the left and the right.

Leonardo Da Vinci, by Walter Isaacson 

The author of Steve Jobs and Einstein takes a spellbinding look at history’s most creative genius, weaving a narrative that connects Da Vinci’s art to his science. He shows how Leonardo’s genius was based on skills we can improve in ourselves, such as passionate curiosity, careful observation, and an imagination so playful that it flirted with fantasy.

Sisters First: Stories from our Wild and Wonderful Life, by Jenna Bush Hager and Barbara Pierce Bush 

Much more than a tale of politics, the girls who saw both their grandfather and father serve as President of the United States co-author a thoughtful memoir about their lives and American history over the last 30 years. 

Grant, by Ron Chernow

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Washington and Alexander Hamilton delivers a brilliant account of Ulysses S. Grant’s life. Chernow provides a deeper understanding of the often misunderstood and frequently caricatured Civil War general and post-war president.

Nonfiction

Overload: Finding the Truth in Today’s Deluge of News by Bob Schieffer

The legendary television broadcaster examines today’s journalism and those who practice it. Based on interviews with over 40 media leaders from television, print media, and the internet, Schieffer surveys the perils and promises of journalism’s rapidly changing landscape.

The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia, by Masha Gessen

A brilliant book by the biographer of Vladimir Putin, Gessen follows the lives of four people to chart the path of a Russia from the doorstep of democracy to a virulent autocracy.


The Last Castle: The Epic Story of Love, Loss and American Royalty in the Nation’s Largest Home, by Denise Kieran

The fascinating true story behind the magnificent Gilded Age mansion Biltmore — the largest, grandest residence ever built in the United States. The story of Biltmore spans world wars, the Jazz Age, the Depression, and generations of the famous Vanderbilt family, and features a captivating cast of real-life characters including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Thomas Wolfe, Teddy Roosevelt, John Singer Sargent, James Whistler, Henry James, and Edith Wharton.

Fiction

The Last Ballad

by Wiley Cash

The chronicle of an ordinary woman’s struggle for dignity and her rights in a textile mill, The Last Ballad is a moving tale of courage in the face of oppression and injustice. Cash tells the story of Ella May Wiggins and brings to life the heartbreak and bravery of the labor movement in 20th century North Carolina, paying tribute to the thousands of heroic women and men who risked their lives to win basic rights for all workers. 

Cookbooks

The Farmhouse Chef: Recipes and Stories from My Carolina Farm, by Jamie DeMent

From the owner of Piedmont Restaurant in Durham.

Cúrate: Authentic Spanish Food From an American Kitchen, by Kate Button

From the owner of Cúrate in Asheville.

Poole’s: Recipes and Stories from a Modern Diner, by Ashley Christensen

From the owner of Poole’s Downtown Diner in Raleigh.

CHILDREN’S BOOKS

Brinkley Boyd of Weymouth, by Annie Hallinan

From the author of the Sandhills best-selling title The Sweetest Christmas Eve comes this new tale of Brinkley Boyd. A small, quiet mouse, Brinkley enjoys living at the Boyd House at Weymouth. There are rooms to explore, animal friends to make, stories to hear, and adventures to be had. This special edition of Brinkley Boyd also includes a Weymouth Center guided scavenger hunt and special photographs from James and Katharine Boyd’s wedding. Ages 4-9.

The Very Very Very Long Dog, by Julia Patton

Bartelby is a very long and lovable dachshund who lives in a bookstore. He has a lovely set of friends who take him for walks through the city, but he has no idea that his bumbling backside leaves a trail of destruction and accidents behind him. Embarrassed that he has no control over his back end, Bartelby vows to never leave the cozy bookstore again. Can his friends help him find a way to help himself? Ages 3-7.

Top Elf, by Caleb Huett

Ollie and Celia think they know what the life of an elf is supposed to be like: make toys; help Santa; make more toys; help Santa; try out a new icecream flavor; help Santa. However, after 20 years, the current St. Nick is ready to pass the torch to the next Santa who will be chosen in a rather unusual way — a contest! Let the Santa trials and the fun begin. Ages 7-12.

Nyxia, by Scott Reintgen

Nyxia — an amazing substance that can be transformed into a ring, a sword, a life-saving vest, a wall. Nyxia — sought out by the Babel Corporation. Nyxia — the thing that just might transform Emmett Atwater from an underprivileged teen into a millionaire if only he can earn a spot on the team traveling to the planet Eden to extract more Nyxia. Hunger Games meets Enders Game, this first installment of the Nyxia trilogy leaves the reader begging debut author Scott Reintgen to hurry please with book two. Ages 14 and up. PS

Compiled by Kimberly Daniels Taws and Angie Talley.

November Books

FICTION

Heather, the Totality, by Matthew Weiner

The explosive debut novel — about family, power and privilege — from the creator of the award-winning Mad Men. Mark and Karen Breakstone have constructed the idyllic life of wealth and status they always wanted, made complete by their beautiful and extraordinary daughter Heather. But they are still not quite at the top. When the new owners of the penthouse above them begin construction, an unstable stranger penetrates the security of their comfortable lives and threatens to destroy everything they’ve created.

Future Home of the Living God, by Louise Erdrich

The New York Times best-selling, National Book Award-winning author of LaRose and The Round House paints a startling portrait of a young woman fighting for her life and her unborn child against oppressive forces that manifest in the wake of a cataclysmic event. The world as we know it is ending. Evolution has reversed itself, affecting every living creature on Earth. Science cannot stop the world from running backward, as woman after woman gives birth to infants that appear to be a primitive species of humans. Cedar Hawk Songmaker, the 32-year-old adopted daughter of a pair of big-hearted, open-minded Minneapolis liberals, is as disturbed and uncertain as the rest of America. But for Cedar, this change is profound and deeply personal. She is four months pregnant. A chilling dystopian novel both provocative and prescient, Future Home of the Living God is a startlingly original work from one of our most acclaimed writers: a moving meditation on female agency, self-determination, biology and natural rights that speaks to the troubling changes of our time.

The End We Start From, by Megan Hunter

A searingly original debut, The End We Start From heralds the arrival of Megan Hunter, a dazzling and unique literary talent. As London is submerged below floodwaters, a woman gives birth to her first child, Z. Days later, she and her baby are forced to leave their home in search of safety. They head north through a newly dangerous country seeking refuge. The story traces fear and wonder as the baby grows, thriving and content against all the odds. A modern-day parable of rebirth and renewal, of maternal bonds, and the instinct to survive in the absence of all that’s familiar, The End We Start From is an indelible and elemental first book.

The Story of Arthur Truluv, by Elizabeth Berg

For the past six months, Arthur Moses’ days have looked the same: He tends to his rose garden and to Gordon, his cat, then rides the bus to the cemetery to visit his beloved late wife for lunch. The last thing Arthur would imagine is for one unlikely encounter to utterly transform his life. Maddy Harris is an 18-year-old introspective girl who visits the cemetery to escape the other kids at school. One afternoon she joins Arthur — a gesture that begins a surprising friendship between two lonely souls. Moved by Arthur’s kindness and devotion, Maddy gives him the nickname “Truluv.” As Arthur’s neighbor Lucille moves into their orbit, the unlikely trio band together and, through heartache and hardship, help one another rediscover their own potential to start anew.

Artemis, by Andy Weir

The best-selling author of The Martian returns with an irresistible new science fiction thriller — a heist story set on the moon. Jazz Bashara is a criminal. Well, sort of. Life in Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you’re not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you’ve got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent. Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down. But pulling off the impossible is just the start of Jazz’s problems, when she learns she’s stepped squarely into a conspiracy for control of Artemis itself. Her only chance at survival lies in a gambit even more unlikely than the first.

Strangers in Budapest, by Jessica Keener

Budapest is a city of secrets, a place where everything is opaque and nothing is as it seems. It is to this enigmatic city that a young American couple, Annie and Will, move with their infant son, shortly after the fall of the Communist regime. Annie hopes to escape the ghosts from her past; Will wants to take his chances as an entrepreneur in Hungary’s newly developing economy. But only a few months after moving there, they receive a secretive request from friends in the U.S. to check up on an elderly stranger who also has recently arrived in Budapest. When they realize that his sole purpose for coming there is to exact revenge on a man who he is convinced seduced and then murdered his daughter, Will insists they have nothing to do with him. Annie, unable to resist anyone she feels may need her help, soon finds herself enmeshed in the old man’s plan, caught up in a scheme that will end with death. Atmospheric, secretive, much like the old Hungarian city itself, Strangers in Budapest is an intricately woven story of lives that intersect and pull apart, perfect for fans of Celeste Ng’s Everything I Never Told You and Chris Pavone’s The Expats. Keener has written a transporting novel about a couple trying to make a new life in a foreign land, only to find themselves drawn into a cultural, and generational, vendetta.

NONFICTION

The Written World: The Power of Stories to Shape People, History, Civilization, by Martin Puchner

On this remarkable journey, the power of literature to shape people, civilizations and world history is explored through 16 key stories from over 4,000 years of literature — from the Iliad and its influence on Alexander the Great to J.K. Rowling’s impact today. In this delightful and important book, Martin Puchner tells stories of people whose lives and beliefs led them to create groundbreaking texts that affected the world they we were born into, and the world in which we live today. Puchner offers a worldwide perspective, beginning with the Epic of Gilgamesh, through the Book of Ezra, The Tale of Genji, Cervantes’ Don Quixote, up to the present. Fascinating facts and insights about people (Gutenberg, Ben Franklin, Goethe) and inventions (writing technologies, the printing press, the book) and how they shaped religion, politics and commerce are also explored. Puchner brings literature alive and changes the way we view the power of great stories, past, present, and future, as he tells the story of literature in 16 acts.

What Unites Us: Reflections of Patriotism, by Dan Rather

At a moment of crisis over our national identity, Dan Rather has been reflecting — and writing passionately almost every day on social media — about the world we live in, what our core ideals have been and should be, and what it means to be an American. Now, in a collection of original essays, the venerated television journalist celebrates our shared values and what matters most in our great country, and shows us what patriotism looks like. Writing about the institutions that sustain us and the values that have transformed us, Rather brings to bear his decades of experience on the frontlines of the world’s biggest stories. After a career spent as a reporter and anchor for CBS News, where he interviewed every living president since Eisenhower and was on the ground for every major event, from the assassination of John F. Kennedy to Watergate to 9/11, Rather has in the last year become a hugely popular voice of reason on social media, with more than 2 million Facebook followers and an engaged new audience who help many of his posts go viral. With his famously plainspoken voice and a fundamental sense of hope, Rather has written the book to inspire conversation and to remind us how we are ultimately united.

God: A Human History, by Reza Aslan

The No. 1 New York Times best-selling author of Zealot explores humanity’s quest to make sense of the divine, and sounds a call to embrace a deeper, more expansive understanding of God. In Zealot, Aslan replaced the well-worn portrayal of Jesus of Nazareth with a startling new image of the man in all his contradictions. In his new book, Aslan takes on a subject even more immense, God, writ large. More than just a history of our understanding of God, this book is an attempt to get to the root of this humanizing impulse in order to develop a more peaceful, universal spirituality unencumbered by the urge to foist our human characteristics upon the divine. Whether you believe in one God or many gods or no god at all, God: A Human History will transform the way you think about the divine and its role in our everyday lives.

A World Without “Whom”: The Essential Guide to Language in the BuzzFeed Age, by Emmy J. Favilla

When it comes to language these days, there is no such thing as correct style. Favilla believes in a language that is playful, flexible and ethically aware. Communication is an art, not a science, and artistic license is especially crucial to the internet age, when language is evolving faster than ever before. Now considered the go-to expert, Favilla has written a profoundly funny, engaging, provocative book about how language evolves, a work as full of humor and charm as it is practical advice. With wry cleverness and an uncanny intuition for the possibilities of expressiveness, Favilla argues that rather than try to preserve the sanctity of the written language as laid out by Strunk and White, we should be concerned with the larger issues of clarity and accuracy, with preserving the natural patterns of speech, and with being politically sensitive and respectful. Her ideas will fascinate believers and naysayers alike, and her approach to the new rules will delight anyone who has ever considered the question of “whom” (phase it out!), the singular “their” (phase it in!) or whether to hyphenate sideboob (never!).

President McKinley: Architect of the American Century, by Robert W. Merry

Republican President William McKinley, assassinated in 1901, six months into his second term as president, transformed America into an imperial power. Although he does not register large in either public memory or historians’ rankings, in this revealing account, Merry unfolds the mystery of how this bland man managed such profound change. McKinley settled decades of monetary controversy by taking the country to a strict gold standard; in the Spanish-American War he kicked Spain out of the Caribbean and liberated Cuba; in the Pacific he acquired Hawaii and the Philippines through diplomacy and war; he developed the doctrine of “fair trade”; forced the “Open Door” to China; forged our “special relationship” with Great Britain. He expanded executive power and managed public opinion through his quiet manipulation of the press. McKinley paved the way for the bold and flamboyant leadership of his famous successor, Teddy Roosevelt, who built on his accomplishments (and got credit for many of them). Merry writes movingly about McKinley’s admirable personal life, from his simple Midwestern upbringing to his Civil War heroism to his brave comportment just moments before his death. Lively, definitive and eye-opening, President McKinley resurrects this overlooked figure and places him squarely on the list of our important presidents.

The Vanity Fair Diaries: 1983-1992, by Tina Brown

Summoned from London in hopes that she can save Condé Nast’s troubled new flagship Vanity Fair, Brown is immediately plunged into the maelstrom of the competitive New York media world and the backstabbing rivalries at the court of the planet’s slickest, most glamour-focused magazine company. She survives the politics, the intrigue and the attempts to derail her by a simple stratagem — succeeding. In the face of rampant skepticism, she triumphantly reinvents a failing magazine. Here are the inside stories of Vanity Fair scoops and covers that sold millions — the Reagan kiss, the meltdown of Princess Diana’s marriage to Prince Charles, the sensational Annie Leibovitz cover of a gloriously pregnant, naked Demi Moore. In the diary’s cinematic pages, the drama, the comedy and the struggle of running an “it” magazine come to life. The Vanity Fair Diaries is also a woman’s journey, of making a home in a new country and of the deep bonds Brown shares with her husband, their prematurely born son, and their daughter.

Kiss the Ground: How the Food You Eat Can Reverse Climate Change, Heal Your Body & Ultimately Save Our World, by Josh Tickell

Discover the hidden power soil has to reverse climate change, and how a regenerative farming diet not only delivers us better health and wellness, but also rebuilds our most precious resource — the very ground that feeds us. Josh Tickell, one of America’s most celebrated documentary filmmakers and director of Fuel, has dedicated most of his life to saving the environment. Now, in Kiss the Ground, he explains an incredible truth: by changing our diets to a soil-nourishing, regenerative agriculture diet, we can reverse global warming, harvest healthy, abundant food, and eliminate the poisonous substances that are harming our children, pets, bodies, and ultimately our planet. Through fascinating and accessible interviews with celebrity chefs, ranchers, farmers and top scientists, this remarkable book, soon to be a full-length documentary film narrated by Woody Harrelson, will teach you how to become an agent in humanity’s single most important and time sensitive mission. Reverse climate change and effectively save the world — all through the choices you make in how and what to eat.

CHILDREN’S BOOKS

William’s Winter Nap, by Linda Ashman

William is all tucked in bed and ready to fall asleep in his cozy cabin when there is a tap on the window.  Outside stands a chilled chipmunk who says, “My toes are cold, my tail is too, OK if I come in with you?”  The night brings a succession of forest critters, each larger and colder than the last.  The result is a delightful forest full of animals joining William in his snuggly warm bed.  What results for readers are giggly preschoolers asking to read this charming winter story again and again.  (Ages 2-5).

Robinson, by Peter Sis

A young boy discovers the best adventures await when he chooses not to follow the crowd, but instead take the lead of his own dreams.  Written and illustrated by the award-winning Sis, this lovely book will be on every child’s “read it one more time” list. (Ages 3-6).

Thelma the Unicorn, by Aaron Blabey

Fame, fortune, glitter, sparkles, a horn! Thelma wanted it all.  But when her Unicorn wish comes true, will it be all she hoped?   Silly fun with a gentle message about loving yourself, Thelma the Unicorn is a great giggle-inducing read aloud. (Ages 3-6).

Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow, by Jessica Townsend

Unlucky Morrigan Crow’s birthday present was an unusual one . . . a black umbrella. Even more unusual, it was given not by a parent but by Jupiter North — a member of the Wunder Society and her sponsor.  Fans of The Unwanteds, Savvy and the Mysterious Benedict Society will devour this fast-paced adventure in which hotels can grow and change, umbrellas are modes of transportation, and unlucky children can rise to the highest heights if only they are honest, determined, brave and talented enough to pass the Wunder Society Trials. (Ages 8-14).

YOUNG ADULT

Long Way Down, by Jason Reynolds

Wow. Just wow. In less than 300 pages, with a few simple (yet blindingly poignant) words on each page, and a story that spans only the brief time it takes an elevator to go from the sixth floor of Will Holloman’s apartment building to the ground floor, brilliant author Jason Reynolds has crafted a masterpiece that will absolutely blow readers away.  Strikingly relevant, tragic yet beautiful, this brilliant novel in verse is a great choice for fans of both Angie Sage’s The Hate You Give and Kwame Alexander’s Crossover. (Ages 12 and up).  PS

Compiled by Kimberly Daniels Taws and Angie Talley.

Bookshelf

September Books

Return of the spies

By Romey Petite

Marita: The Spy Who Loved Castro, by Marita Lorenz

Even as an infant, Marita Lorenz was a survivor — her twin sister was stillborn. By the age of 7 she had endured both confinement and liberation from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and sexual assault by an American soldier. In 1959, at 19 years old, Marita was aboard her father’s ship in the port of Havana, barely a month after the Cuban dictator and capitalist puppet Fulgencio Batista had been deposed and driven out. It was then that Marita had her first meeting with her eventual lover, Fidel Castro. On another visit she was hired to slip Castro a fatal poison — an act she found herself ultimately unable to undertake. Called unreliable, a failed assassin, and the patron saint of conspiracy theorists, Marita Lorenz has lived an undeniably riveting life of chance encounters, crossing paths with characters ranging from Frank Anthony Sturgis (of the Watergate Five) to Lee Harvey Oswald. Her forthcoming memoir is the basis for the upcoming major motion picture Marita, starring Jennifer Lawrence.

A Legacy of Spies, by John Le Carré

Fans of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy have waited 25 years for author John Le Carré’s return to the form he mastered — the literary spy novel. His latest, A Legacy of Spies, serves as both a kind of prequel and a bookend to his other tales of espionage, and features the aging Peter Guillam — a disciple of spymaster George Smiley and the linchpin of Le Carré’s stories. Recruited into the British Secret Service, aka the Circus, as a young man, Guillam is called to London to account for the Machiavellian actions of his colleagues and himself during the Cold War. Splitting the narrative between many years ago and today, Le Carré illuminates the reader on the discrepancies between what Guillam tells the committee and what really happened. Characteristic of Le Carré, there is a kind of deftness with which he summarizes the unspoken aspects of one’s duty in a way that is quintessentially British. A Legacy of Spies is a tale that longtime fans of Le Carré will appreciate.

Little Fires Everywhere, by Celeste Ng

The idyllic and privileged suburbia of Shaker Heights, Ohio, is home to Mr. and Mrs. Richardson, their two sons (Moody and Trip) and two daughters (Lexie and Izzy). Their predictable model home changes when Mrs. Richardson returns from work one day to discover her house ablaze — not from a candle or appliance fire, but deliberately splashed gasoline. Author Celeste Ng uses this incident as a jumping off point to begin weaving a story from the ashes of the Richardsons’ home, beginning when the couple decides to take two new tenants into one of the duplexes they routinely rent out — an artist, Mia Warren, and her daughter, Pearl. While the tenants seem, at first, an agreeable pair, a wedge is driven between the two families as the Richardsons’ friends, the McCulloughs, adopt a little girl found abandoned at a fire station. Things come to a boiling point when the little girl’s biological mother reappears demanding the return of her daughter. A former recipient of the Pushcart Prize, Celeste Ng has also won Amazon Book of the Year for her first novel, Everything I Never Told You. Possessing a large cast, Little Fires Everywhere takes a little while to settle into, but will reward readers that are patient with its slow burning pace.

Five-Carat Soul, by James McBride 

James McBride is the author of the National Book Award-winning The Good Lord Bird and several best-sellers including, The Color of Water, Song Yet Sung, Miracle at St. Anna, and Kill ’Em and Leave: Searching for James Brown and the American Soul. A unifying theme in his collection of stories, Five-Carat Soul, is the promise of rediscovering lost treasure and the uncovering of forgotten lore. This treasure might be something literal — someone in search of a legendary antique trainset commissioned by Robert E. Lee for his son, or perhaps something more abstract like the boy who persists in the belief that his father is none other than Abraham Lincoln. Freedom, too, plays its part as a kind of priceless treasure, both sought and bestowed by unconventional characters. In “Mr. P & the Wind” a lion hopes to escape from the confines of a zoo, and in “The Fish Man Angel,” a monster not unlike The Creature from the Black Lagoon comes bearing prophetic wisdom to a slave drawing water from a well. McBride himself is a skilled craftsman, one that relishes the experience of spinning a good yarn. His prose teems with the subtle flourishes of character quirks. An intermingling of history and fabulism also lends his stories a kind of suspension of disbelief, even as they veer into the territory of magical realism.

Empress of the East: How a European Slave Girl Became Queen of the Ottoman Empire, by Leslie Peirce

Author Leslie Peirce has possessed a penchant for Ottoman history ever since her involvement with the Peace Corps in Turkey. Her latest book tells the story of Hurrem Sultan, the abducted Christian girl who became known as Roxelana. Roxelana played a controversially active role in the Ottoman Empire — a vast territory spanning the east Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Historians know little of her save that she was a Christian captive, as was custom for harem girls. Peirce begins with her own speculation on the girl’s unknown origins, then charts Roxelana’s rise, from her initial arrival in the harem, to being declared chief consort and eventually, and most unlikely of all, her enthronement as the wife of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. Roxelana left a legacy that consists of charities, mosques, schools, fountains and women’s hospitals. Called a witch by those who feared her ambition and wise counsel to her husband, Empress of the East is the story of a woman who defied tradition, but remains mostly unknown in the West. 

Crash Override, by Zoe Quinn

Not everyone gets to choose his or her vocation. For Zoe Quinn, she thought it would just be a career in game design. Instead, she discovered another calling in founding an organization to end cyberbullying and online harassment. #gamergate was the hashtag heard around the world. It began as no more than a private quarrel and ended with a panel assembled before the United Nations. In 2014, over a matter of hours, Quinn watched as complete strangers commandeered a message board rant written by an ex-boyfriend and a coordinated campaign — fueled by rage and misogyny — was launched against her. For a time, her life was derailed, her personal history hijacked, and her privacy invaded by trolls. Crash Override tells the story of how Quinn, empowered through her own struggle as the target of mob hatred, founded a crisis helpline to assist other victims of online abuse, hate groups and impersonation. One thing Quinn makes abundantly clear in her book: This can happen to anyone who veers from the norm or dares to raise his or her voice.

The Trick, by Emanuel Bergmann

When Max Cohn’s parents divorce, they promise nothing will change for him, but it’s a promise they should never have made. Max blames himself for his parents’ irreconcilable differences. While his father is moving out, Max discovers a dusty scratched old LP with a cover featuring a magician called The Great Zabbatini. Listening to the album, Max hears Zabbatini speak of a powerful love spell and begins to believe that it alone can bring his parents together again. The Trick is told via two interwoven narratives bridging the past, Zabbatini’s humble origins as a dubious miracle child born to a rabbi and his wife; and the present as Max is prompted to seek out the old magician. Bawdy, tragic and whimsical, it is translator and teacher Emanuel Bergmann’s debut novel and certain to be a hit with readers of Heather O’Neill’s Lonely Hearts Hotel and Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.

CHILDREN’S BOOKS

By Angie Talley

The Mermaid, by Jan Brett

Beloved author/illustrator of such classic children’s books as The Mitten and Gingerbread Baby, Brett has written a stunningly beautiful undersea version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. It’s sure to be the book for the fall. Jan Brett will visit Southern Pines Thursday, Nov. 29, at 5 p.m. Tickets to the event are available with purchase of The Mermaid through The Country Bookshop and are limited, so call 910-692-3211 to reserve your copy. All ages.

The Glass Town Game, by Catherynne Valente

Glass Town is a marvelous, magical world invented by sisters Charlotte, Emily and Ann, and their brother, Branwell, whose toy soldiers fight real battles with the Duke of Wellington and Napoleon Bonaparte. But when the “Beastliest Day” comes and Charlotte and Emily must go off to school, the siblings find themselves aboard the Glass Town Royal Express gliding through fields resembling Aunt Elizabeth’s handkerchief, where Officer Crashy looks suspiciously like one of the toy soldiers. Mere words make things come to life, and the mysterious Grog can bring life to those once thought lost. Fun and adventure with bits of history tossed in, The Glass Town Game has already received starred reviews and is children’s literature at its best. Catherynne Valente, also the author of the magnificent The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland series, will be at The Country Bookshop Wednesday, Sep. 13, at 4 p.m. This event is free. Ages 8-14.

Tumble & Blue, by Cassie Beasley

From The New York Times best-selling author of Circus Mirandus comes this story of a golden gator, a mysterious swamp, two cursed children, and the way the children take their destiny into their own hands. At once a story of magic, belief in the impossible, friendship, family and adventure, Tumble & Blue is a wonderful tale for young readers or for families who love to read together. Ages 10-12.

July Books

Kick back reading

By Romey Petite

Fierce Kingdom, by Gin Phillips

While watching her 4-year-old son Lincoln play, Joan’s only care is making sure they both make it out of the zoo before closing time. When she hears a loud bang, Joan tries not to panic, but secretly fears the worst. By the time she and her son spot the bodies and the gunman, it is too late to make a break for the exit gate. Instead, they retreat deeper into the zoo among the animal habitats to stay one step ahead of the danger. Between Joan’s wry wit and love for her son, Phillips brings to life not only a powerful character, but a compelling one, too. Joan will do anything to protect both Lincoln and the fantasies he inhabits — worlds of myths and monsters — with a kind of self-sacrifice that may cost her life. Readers will find Phillips’ Fierce Kingdom nearly impossible to put down and a thrilling ride from beginning to end.

Caesar’s Last Breath, by Sam Kean

The best-selling author of The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons, The Disappearing Spoon and The Violinist’s Thumb returns with a breathtaking macro and micro look at the very air we breathe. Kean’s sense of wonderment is as infectious as an airborne contagion, taking readers on a delightful stroll down the periodic table, through the chaotic chemical interactions at work in our atmosphere, and delving into some of the strangest theories ever posited — cloud seeding, spontaneous combustion, and Soviet-era weather wars. Inviting us to be conscious of the ever-flowing currents traveling in and out of our bodies, Kean points out the ramifications of the laws of conservation implied in the title Caesar’s Last Breath, postulating that both the past and the future, the living and the dead, are all contained in the very molecules around us.

What We Lose, by Zinzi Clemmons

Thandi’s visit to her father to give him the news that she is pregnant and intends to marry her boyfriend, Peter, becomes the framing device for this debut novel. Born and raised in Pennsylvania, Thandi can never know her ancestral home of Johannesburg — not as her late mother did. While her father’s family is from New York, Thandi’s mother’s mixed-race South African heritage remains both inaccessible to her and yet, ubiquitous. Her story is strung together from heartfelt anecdotes, vignettes, dreams and snapshots, creating a kind of map. Readers will appreciate the way Clemmons’ juxtaposition of prose and pictures has a kind of piercing immediacy that seizes readers and brings them along as she searches for closure and awaits her baby’s birth.

My Sister’s Bones, by Nuala Ellwood

A dedicated and decorated foreign correspondent, Kate Rafter has made it her mission to report on the stories of ordinary people who find themselves confronting the ongoing tragedy of war. After receiving news of her mother’s death, Kate is forced to leave the chaos in Syria and return to the vestiges of a home she has avoided. Kate reconnects with her lingering alcoholic sister, Sally — her abusive father’s favorite daughter. She begins experiencing hallucinations, encountering a child in a neighbor’s garden who claims to have died in Aleppo. As Sally continues to contradict Kate’s memories of what did and didn’t happen during their childhood, Kate begins to doubt herself. Uncertain if these visions are related to PTSD from the horrors she’s seen in Syria or if she is actually in contact with a ghost, she begins to question her own objectivity. Readers will find Ellwood’s debut novel calling to them as they attempt to satisfy their craving for a psychological page-turner worthy of Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train.

All We Shall Know, by Donal Ryan

The author of The Spinning Heart, winner of the Guardian First Book Award and the EU Prize for Literature returns with a new novel about secrets in a small town. Melody Sheen, a 33-year-old tutor, is pregnant by one of her students, a 17-year-old “traveller” boy named Martin Toppy. Immediately abandoned by her equally unfaithful husband, Pat, Melody’s journey in the months leading up to the baby’s arrival involves dealing with unusual bouts of nausea as well as confronting feelings once-buried that begin to resurface — desolation, vindictiveness and remorse. Worst of all, Melody finds herself haunted not just by the fragments of her fraying marriage, but something far worse, her feelings of guilt over the death of her girlhood best friend, Breedie Flynn. Ryan has crafted All We Shall Know with a dark, dispassionate, premeditated cadence, wrenching readers through each revelation with a knifelike twist.

The Stars in Our Eyes: The Famous, the Infamous, and Why We Care Way Too Much About Them, by Julie Klam

Take a wistful foray into the nature of celebrity, how stars are born, and what our culture chooses to celebrate with the The New York Times best-selling author of You Had Me at Woof, Love at First Bark, Friendkeeping and Please Excuse My Daughter. Klam approaches the topic of celebrity with a restrained fanaticism, acknowledging the absurd way fame and the paparazzi pervert both public and private lives — spinning snapshots of stars into the fantasies of mere mortals. Klam doesn’t stop at the pantheon of old and new Hollywood. She approaches the topic of viral video stars, Vine and Instagram personalities. Self-aware and decidedly droll, The Stars in Our Eyes is filled with Cinderella stories, colorful quotes, hearsay tales, and the near-misses of brushes with fame from Quinn Cummings, Harry Shearer, Ringo Starr, Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison, Jennifer Aniston, Justin Bieber, Mick Jagger, P. Diddy, George Carlin, and Princess Diana, among others

The Almost Sisters, by Joshilyn Jackson

Leia Birch Briggs is a 38-year-old comic book writer and artist with a brand-new book deal and a baby on the way. Commissioned to write and draw an origin tale for one of her characters, she finds her life in synchronicity, embarking on her own coming home story. Leia has a go-with-the-flow attitude — she met her baby’s father at a comic book convention and doesn’t remember much about him except that he was dressed as Batman. Now, Leia has to make the announcement to her traditional Southern family. Before she can break the news, she receives word of a complication, the dissolution of her stepsister Rachel’s seemingly happy marriage of 16 years. After they are reunited, the pair sets about cleaning the old Victorian house belonging to their Grandmother Birchie, who suffers from dementia. In the attic they find the relics of a ghastly murder — a secret dating back to the Civil War. Throughout The Almost Sisters, the best-selling author of Gods in Alabama displays the chemistry of her word choice, comedic timing and a discerning eavesdropper’s ear.

Children’s Books

By Angie Talley

Refugee, by Alan Gratz

At first seeking to remain invisible to those in power but eventually determined to speak out — to do something — to stand up for human kind, Refugee tells the story of three children: Josef, fleeing Nazi Germany in 1939; Isabel, escaping Castro’s Cuba in 1994; and Mahmoud, seeking refuge from the horrors of Syria is 2015. Alan Gratz, the critically acclaimed author of the N.C. Middle School Battle of the Books title Prisoner B 3087, wildly popular with readers ages 12-16, will be at The Country Bookshop at 4 p.m. on Saturday, July 29. Refugee is available for pre-order and will be published on July 25. Ages 12 and up.

Raymond, by Yann and Gwendal LeBec

Raymond the dog is just your regular family pet until, one day, he thinks, couldn’t he just … sit at the table, go to the movies, get a job, go out for a cappuccino? Soon Raymond begins to leave all his canine ways behind, and so do all the other dogs in town. But is Raymond’s new gig all work and no play? He doesn’t even have time for family dinner! Maybe, just maybe, Raymond misses the dog’s life. Comedic and genuine, this tale about appreciating the simpler things in life reminds us all that work can wait — after all, there are more important things (like getting your ears scratched in just the right place). Ages 3-6.

Summer of Lost and Found, by Rebecca Behrens

When city girl Nell is forced to spend her summer in North Carolina, she becomes involved with the centuries-old mystery of the Lost Colony of Roanoke. Her “boring” vacation turns into an adventure she never could have imagined. Ages 10-12.

Saturday with Daddy, by Dan Andreasen

For little elephant, Saturday with Daddy is the best day of the week.  With a trip to the hardware store, a cookout in the backyard, Frisbee tossing and an end-of-day nap in the hammock, what could be a better way to spend a day? Ages 2-4.  PS

June Books

The kickoff to summer reading

By Romey Petite

The Marsh King’s Daughter, by Karen Dionne

Born to an abducted teenage girl and raised in the confines of a remote, tiny cabin, the last thing Helena ever wants to do is go back to the marshlands of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula — the world she and her mother ran away from 13 years ago. Helena has built a life for herself with a good job, two sons and a loving husband, far away from the media sensation her life turned into following their narrow escape. When her father, Jacob Holbrook, vanishes from custody, murdering two prison guards in the process, a hapless manhunt begins. Having spent her earliest years being trained by Holbrook, Helena’s survivalist instincts kick in — knowing she is the only one with the skill and know-how to find the Marsh King. With allusions to both fairy tales and mythology, praise from Lee Child and Megan Abbott, and told in delicious, hackle-raising prose, Dionne’s The Marsh King’s Daughter is certain to be this summer’s sleeper hit.

Magpie Murders, by Anthony Horowitz

The author of the best-sellers Moriarty, Trigger Mortis, The House of Silk, the young adult Alex Rider series, and one of the creators of the British detective drama Midsomer Murders has crafted a tale in homage to the whodunit masterpieces of Agatha Christie. When editor Susan Ryeland receives the manuscript for novelist Alan Conway’s latest Atticus Pund mystery, she is initially delighted to be holed up all alone in her London, Crouch End flat without her paramour, Andreas, to disturb her. As Susan begins to read between the lines, however, she discovers there might be more to this page-turner than what appears on the page. Spellbound by a mystery only she has the clues to solve, Susan follows a trail left by the author that has her retracing the fictional detective’s steps. Readers will be similarly enthralled.

Flesh and Bone and Water, by Luiza Sauma

When a letter arrives in London for Andre Cabral supposedly all the way from an old flame back in his childhood home in Rio de Janeiro, the middle-aged father and surgeon finds himself drifting into a reverie. Separated from his British wife, Esther, Andre begins to fantasize about searching for the love letter’s sender — Luana, daughter of his family’s housemaid. One problem: He does not remember her surname. Bit by bit, Andre attempts to recall the events spinning out of his mother’s death, prompting him to set out on a journey from London to Rio to the Amazon. Flesh and Bone and Water is Pat Kavanagh Award Winner Luiza Sauma’s dreamlike debut, containing meditations on issues regarding race, social mobility, sex, and the selective nature of memory.

More of Me, by Kathryn Evans

In this electrifying debut novel, possessing the DNA of both Ray Bradbury’s short story “Fever Dream” and Katherine Dunn’s Geek Love, Teva has a convincingly ordinary life where her teachers, Ollie (her boyfriend) and her best friend, Maddy, are concerned. Unbeknown to the world beyond her cloistered home, however, Webb involuntarily clones herself once a year. The 16th Teva in line, she’s forced to balance the usual teenage frets about exams and life with the memories of 15 other Tevas. Fortunately, the others are kept locked away to avoid confusion, but that’s the least of 16’s worries. Realizing there is only a short while before she, in turn, will be replaced by yet another clone, and contending with the 15-year-old version of herself over their mutual affection for Ollie, Teva has decided she won’t surrender her life or love without a fight.

Marriage of a Thousand Lies, by SJ Sindu

Lakshmi, dubbed Lucky, is a programmer and a freelance fantasy illustrator — often acting as the digital artist equivalent of a boudoir photographer. Her husband, Krishna, works as second pass editor for a greeting card company. When the two really want to have fun, they briefly abscond from their traditional gender roles where each acts as the other’s beard — leaving their wedding rings at their Bridgeport, Connecticut, apartment — to frequent the local gay bars. When Lucky’s grandmother in Boston suffers a fall, she finds herself once again staying with her conservative Sri-Lankan American family. It is here that Lucky reconnects with her girlhood crush, Nisha, and discovers she, too, is bound for an arranged marriage to a man she hardly knows. Star-crossed, these two lovers must choose either to defy conventions and face shame, embarrassment and denial from their community, or uphold tradition and accept the lies their families hold dear.

The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O., by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland

Taking a whimsical approach to history, science, fantasy, epistolary documents and mystery, best-selling author Neal Stephenson and critically acclaimed historical novelist Nicole Galland recruit readers for a chimerical speculative thriller. Melisandre “Mel” Stokes, a linguistics expert, is approached by Tristan Lyons, a representative of the shadowy military intelligence division D.O.D.O. — the Department of Diachronic Operations. Initially, she is offered a large sum of money to act as a translator for some very ancient classified documents, but Mel’s life changes forever when her new job takes her on an expedition back through time to the waning days of the Victorian era. Fans of Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series and Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s Good Omens will appreciate how The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. challenges our fundamental assumptions of the post-enlightenment world while being a whirlwind of good fun.

The Shark Club, by Ann Kidd Taylor

On July 30, 1988, a young Maeve Donnelly and her “crush” Daniel are wandering the Gulf of Mexico’s shores just outside of her grandmother Perri’s watch. After the two share a brief kiss, Maeve is seized by her leg and yanked beneath the waves by a prowling blacktip shark. Surviving the attack with only a flesh wound, Maeve is encouraged instead of deterred by her experience and 18 years later has become a marine biologist of semi-renown. Considered by her colleague Nicholas to be a “shark whisperer,” she displays a natural rapport with the creatures. The Shark Club, the first solo novel of the co-author of the best-selling Traveling with Pomegranates, is the story of Maeve’s return to the magical beach where her story first began, her grandmother’s magical Hotel of the Muses — where there is a room dedicated to each of the matriarch’s favorite authors — and perhaps a chance to reconcile with her childhood sweetheart, who promised his heart to her that fateful day in ’88.

Our Little Racket, by Angelica Baker

When the financial crisis of 2008 sees the collapse of investment bank Weiss & Partners, it is immediately followed by a public outcry and the demand that CEO Bob D’Amico be brought to justice. The weight and responsibility of picking up the pieces of the fragmented firm fall on the shoulders of five women in Greenwich, Connecticut: Madison, D’Amico’s teenage daughter; Isabel, D’Amico’s wife; Amanda, Madison’s best friend; Lily, the D’Amico family’s nanny; and Mina, a family friend. As each finds herself in a position of relative complicity in the ongoing scandal, loyalties are tested. Told in a tone both tender and droll, the prose of Baker’s first novel is reminiscent in scale and ambition to Edith Wharton’s abashed insider view into bourgeois family life.

CHILDREN’S BOOKS
By Angie Talley

Go to Sleep in Your Own Bed, by Candace Fleming

It is bedtime on the farm, but when pig toddles off to snuggle down for the night, he finds someone sleeping there already. What ensues will have pajama-clad young readers giggling themselves to sleep
. . . right after they ask to hear the story one more time. Ages 2-4.

The Book of Mistakes, by Corinna Luyken

Oops! Whoops! Oh no! Mistakes can be creativity ending showstoppers or, better yet, opportunities. In this beautiful new ode to U-turns, debut author/
illustrator Corinna Luyken celebrates mistakes and the wonderful roads they can lead down. Ages 3-adult.

Orphan Island, by Laurel Snyder

Nine on an island, orphans all/Any more, the sky might fall. So goes the rhyme and so goes life on Orphan Island, a place where it only rains at night, where snakes are docile, waters calm, food plentiful, and rules must always be followed. But when Jinny, the Elder, breaks a cardinal rule, the serenity of the island is threatened. Reminiscent of a grown-up version of The Boxcar Children, this captivating read is a mysterious journey and a fascinating exploration of what it really means to grow up — a literary novel sure to get a nod toward next year’s Newbery Medal. Ages 11-14.

When Dimple Met Rishi, by Sandhya Menon

Meet Dimple, crazy for coding and psyched to be attending Insomnia Con summer camp, where she can develop an idea she has for an amazing new app. Meet Rishi, crazy for Dimple, and a closet comic-illustrating prodigy who’s attending Insomnia Con to, well, to be with Dimple. This laugh-out-loud coming of age sweet love story between two talented high school graduates brilliantly explores new love, the experience of being young Indian-Americans, and the difficult decisions they must make when they focus on careers, but find themselves smitten. This is the perfect summer-before-college read. Ages 14 and up.  PS

May Bookshelf

By Romey Petite

This Is Just My Face: Try Not to Stare, by Gabourey Sidibe

Oscar nominee Gabourey Sidibe tells the captivating story of her life prior to starring and debuting in Lee Daniel’s Precious (2009) and her rise to international fame. Sidibe’s memoir charts a course from growing up in Bedford-Stuyvesant/Harlem, raised by a polygamist Senegalese taxi-driving father, an R&B/gospel singer mom (who supported their family by busking in the subway), and her aunt — feminist activist Dorothy Pitman Hughes. From getting her first job as a phone sex operator to her breakthrough role, Sidibe candidly covers a variety of subjects, including friendship, depression, and ongoing struggles in an industry that thrives on enforced beauty standards.

How to Be Human: A Novel, by Paula Cocozza

Still adjusting to life alone in a large house in a London suburb without her ex-boyfriend, Mary finds a baby girl belonging to her neighbors — Eric and Michelle — bundled on her doorstep. The baby isn’t the only unexpected visitor. She’s also acquired a gentleman caller in her garden by way of the back gate — a fox. Mary’s attitude toward the intruder is decidedly more live-and-let-live than her neighbors, who are determined to have the beast exterminated. Mary finds herself between two worlds, the human one she was born into, and one that lies beyond the bounds of her fence in the overgrown enchanted wood behind her house. Cocozza has written for The Guardian, Vogue, The Telegraph and The Independent, and this is her first novel.

A Speck in the Sea: A Story of Survival and Rescue, by John Aldridge, Anthony Sosinski

Ripped right from the headlines, A Speck in the Sea is soon to be a major motion picture by the Weinstein Company. On July 24, 2013, between 2:30 and 3 a.m., lobsterman John Aldridge found himself plunging off the deck of the Anna Mary into the Atlantic Ocean, adrift without a life vest. What awoke in him then was a sudden, violent desire to survive despite his being hours from Montauk Harbor. A Speck in the Sea is, at times, bloodcurdling — Aldridge finds himself being appraised as a potential meal by a shiver of blue sharks. At others, it’s insightfully unabashed — forced to adapt, Aldridge fills his heavy fisherman’s boots with air to create a pair of makeshift flotation devices. Readers of Joe Simpson’s Touching the Void will appreciate this story of survival in the face of desolation and what seems like impossible odds.

Novel Destinations, Second Edition: A Travel Guide to Literary Landmarks from Jane Austen’s Bath to Ernest Hemingway’s Key West, by Shannon McKenna Schmidt and Joni Rendon

A guide for both sightseeing and time travel, Schmidt and Rendon have the unique ability to endow an inanimate locus (whether a small town, bustling metropolis or a winding road) with a distinct voice, preserving it as a timeless place through their prose. Consider how, to this day, images of Joyce’s Dublin, Virginia Woolf’s London and Kafka’s Prague endure despite each city’s respective changes in architecture and pace of life. Readers will enjoy retracing the steps of Shakespeare, Wharton, Kerouac, Harper Lee and Mark Twain from the comfort of their own armchairs, as well as making travel plans for future excursions — road trips to museums, restaurants and festivals nestled in out-of-the-way destinations.

The Loyal Son: The War in Ben Franklin’s House, by Daniel Mark Epstein

Benjamin Franklin — the First American, Prophet of Tolerance and the Newton of Electricity — is a Founding Father synonymous with success and prosperity. Few, however, know of Benjamin’s son, William. Born out of wedlock, William Franklin was 21 years of age the day he aided in his father’s experiments with electricity and at his peak, attained public office as governor of New Jersey. During the American Revolution, William was seized by militiamen, held under house arrest for being a Loyalist and eventually driven into exile. Epstein paints a complicated portrait of both men, one who remains an immortal American patriot another who died an obscure expat.

Wedding Toasts I’ll Never Give, by Ada Calhoun

Following up on her eponymous New York Times essay for the Modern Love column, Calhoun continues her unvarnished approaches to the subjects of marriage, intimacy and the discrepancies therein. Citing friends, poets, priests, rabbis and even unlikely authors (such as J.R.R. Tolkien), Calhoun presents readers with a plethora of post-nuptial advice. Fans of Elizabeth Gilbert and Glennon Doyle Melton will appreciate this exercise in soul-searching as well as its matter-of-fact tone on life happily ever after.

The Potlikker Papers: A Food History of the Modern South, by John T. Edge

Columnist John T. Edge delves into the inextricable relationship of politics to food in the South from Huey P. Long to Jimmy Carter. Beginning chronologically in the 1950s with the role of black cooks and maids in the civil rights movement, Edge creates a through line to 2015 with the arrival of what he designates as the culinary New South — the widespread popularity and integration of dishes from Mexican, Vietnamese and Lebanese Americans. Among numerous culinary delights, is the book’s namesake, the nutrient-rich greens of simmering pot liquor. Expounding on the soup’s origins in the homes of poor Southerners, the hotly contested debates over whether the cornbread should be crumbled or dipped, to its eventual inclusion as a quintessential pillar of cuisine Americana, this is a book no true connoisseur would dare to miss.

The Leavers, by Lisa Ko

Through her winner of the 2016 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Fiction, Lisa Ko gives insight into issues facing immigrants in America today. Deming Guo, 11 years old, finds himself up for adoption when his mother, Polly, an undocumented Chinese immigrant working at a New York nail salon, disappears without a trace. Separated from his mother by thousands of miles, it is not until they are reunited that they realize leaving is not bad if it’s a choice you make yourself. Readers of Imbolo Mbue’s Behold the Dreamers and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah won’t want to miss this tale of longing and reconciliation.

CHILDREN’S BOOKS
By Angie Talley

Children’s Book Week is May 1-7. Share a book with a child and look for children’s events all this week in The Country Bookshop and your local library.

Bloom, by Deborah Diesen and
Mary Lundquist

From The Pout-Pout Fish author Deborah Diesen comes a lovely celebration of planting, growing and together time.  Wrap this lovely picture book up with a pair of garden gloves for the perfect spring gift for a young nature lover. Ages 3-6.

The Forever Garden, by Laurel Snyder

Whether singing to her plants or gathering speckled eggs, Honey is in her garden every day. But when she has to move to take care of her sick mother, who will care for the garden once she leaves?  This sweet, beautifully illustrated story is at once an homage to nature and an ode to the beauty of friendship. It’s the perfect gift for a young child when a friend must move away. Ages 4-8.

I Just Want to Say Good Night,
by Rachel Isadora

This absolutely gorgeous book is anything but the typical going-to-bed book. Lala wishes goodnight to a monkey, her chickens and to the ants, but the most stunning image is Lala wishing goodnight to her goat by resting her head on his flank — providing a poignant visual of just how closely connected African children are to the land. Ages 3-6.

Defy the Stars, by Claudia Gray

Noemi, 17 years old and a fighter pilot for her world, stumbles upon Abel, an advanced android-type warrior abandoned for years in a ship left behind after a battle between his world and Noemi’s.  Adventure, romance and ethical decision making drive the story in this un-put-downable read. With Defy the Stars, Claudia Gray has hit the mark for a perfect summer read for fans of Illuminae or Across the Universe. Ages 14 and up.  PS

April Books

By Romey Petite

Royce Rolls, by Margaret Stohl

The author of the best-selling Beautiful Creatures and Black Widow series turns her pen toward satire in this thinly veiled caricature of the Kardashian family. Bentley Royce, a girl of 16 years, is sick of playing second fiddle to her older sister Porsche (Kim), suffering at the schemes of her manipulative mother, Mercedes (Kris), and her brother, Maybach (Rob), who is of little help to her. Reality intercedes when both Bentley and T. Wilson White — her brother-in-law to be — careen off a cliff on Mulholland Drive. Peppered throughout with memo-like footnotes and press releases, Royce Rolls is a rollicking send-up of the culture of reality TV and our desire to live vicariously through the stars.

What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky: Stories,
by Lesley Nneka Arimah

In What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky, Arimah uses speculative fiction to illustrate truths that are otherwise intangible. Each story is a skillfully concocted, strange, yet plausible, world that a novelist might have wasted an entire sea of words on. In one, a girl crafts a baby out of fallen hair she sweeps up at a salon, but her woven-child’s hunger proves far more ferocious than any child born of flesh and blood. In another, an equation is discovered with the potential to solve all the unhappiness in the world, but mathematicians repeatedly fail to fully integrate it into daily life. Fans of Karen Russell’s St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves or Aimee Bender’s Willful Creatures will adore and admire the seamlessness with which Arimah takes only the time she needs to tell a story — before weaving another its equal in depth. 

Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich, by Norman Ohler

Five years of scintillating research went into Ohler’s Blitzed, an account of the rise of drug culture in Weimar Germany and the immediate fallout — the weaponized manufacture of opiates. It includes the dark history behind corporations such as Merck & Co, Bayer AG and Temmler, and how these companies became producers of narcotics on an unprecedented scale in Nazi-Occupied Germany. Unique to his book is the deconstruction of Adolf Hitler as the teetotaling, abstinent figure the Fuhrer purported himself to be. Blitzed spent five weeks on the best-seller list in Germany, where its publication received considerable acclaim regarding its findings. Its debut on this side of the pond is not to be missed. 

The Boy in the Earth, by Fuminori Nakamura

While being a meditative yet relatively slim weekend read, Nakamura’s The Boy in the Earth has the makings of psychological thriller, a nightmarish noir setting. Part Taxi Driver (1976), part Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground, for the author it is a personal voyage into the human soul. The narrator, an orphan and survivor of a traumatic, abusive childhood, finds himself co-habiting with a strange girl who has also fallen between the cracks in the world. Further disillusioned at discovering his father is still alive, he remains desperate for answers. Nakamura’s first novel to be translated into English, The Thief, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He is also the winner of the Oe Prize, Japan’s highest literary award.

Foxlowe, by Eleanor Wasserberg 

Set against the backdrop of the East Anglian moorlands, the Foxlowe folk are an in-group holding fast to their strange maypole customs. Superstitious and reclusive, they live in fear of the Bad, cursing the memory of Leavers, and otherwise shun the Outside. In their society power comes from naming and marking boundaries. All new arrivals are rechristened. Green, being born in Foxlowe, has no past outside of their tiny world, but she isn’t the only one for long. A baby arrives and Green finds herself forever bound to this newcomer, having mistakenly named her Blue. While Wasserberg’s invented language in this foreboding coming-of-age novel might put one in mind of Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange, her approach toward depicting this rural society has earned her comparisons with the haunted works of Shirley Jackson and reveals her to be a promising new talent — a voice in fiction to watch out for.

My Cat Yugoslavia, by Pajtim Statovci

An arranged marriage becomes the impetus for Statovci’s first novel, a tale bridging two moments in time. In 1980, Emine — a Muslim girl from Kosovo — receives a marriage proposal from a man she’s had little chance to get to know. While the pairing is blessed by the girl’s father, it’s clear her own feelings regarding the match aren’t mutual. Shortly thereafter, war breaks out and the couple flees to Finland, where they try to raise a family despite their splintering union. It is their youngest son, Bekim, who features prominently in the adjacent narrative — intertwined with the first and taking place in the present day. He lives a libertine life of eccentricity, allowing his pet boa constrictor free rein of his apartment. His life takes a turn from the simply odd toward the fabulist when he meets an allegorical cat. It is the subsequent conversations with this outspoken anthropomorphic feline that lead Bekim to return to his mother’s homeland and retrace the steps of his family’s fragmented history.

The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple, by Jeff Guinn

The New York Times best-selling author of Manson returns with a chilling new foray into the subject of mass-hysteria and cults of personality with his investigation into the mind behind the Jonestown massacre — Jim Jones. The Road to Jonestown delves deeply into the jungle settlement in Guyana and provides revelations into the bizarre figure of Jones himself, painting a portrait of the enigmatic figure of the Peoples Temple’s leader. Thoroughly researched and compiled from interviews with survivors of the congregation’s cyanide-induced mass suicide, Guinn’s book is a harrowing read into this quintessential, yet uniquely American, tragedy — one that must never be forgotten.

CHILDREN’S BOOKS By Angie Talley

Bunny’s Book Club, by Annie Silvestro

On a sunny afternoon, on the front steps of the library, Bunny discovered the power, the delight of stories and knew he would do anything to have more books in his world.  Book lovers everywhere understand the power of being absolutely drawn in by a good story and will enjoy sharing this tale of book love. Ages 3-6.

65 Story Treehouse, by Andy Griffiths

Andy and Terry live and write books in their 65-story treehouse that was once 13, then 26, then 38, then 52 stories tall. It has a pet-grooming salon, a birthday room where it’s always your birthday, a room full of exploding eyeballs, a shark tank, a lollipop shop, a quicksand pit, an ant farm and a time machine. Andy Griffiths, author of the wildly popular 13 Story Treehouse graphic novel series will bring his own version of wackiness to The Country Bookshop Thursday, April 6, at 4 p.m.  This event is free and appropriate for children ages 6-12 and their families.

Panda-monium,
by Stuart Gibbs

In this fourth fast-paced endangered species mystery series set in FunJungle, panda fanatics are frenzied, awaiting the arrival of the park’s most thrilling animal yet, Li Ping, a rare and incredibly expensive giant panda. However, when the truck transporting Li Ping finally arrives, its precious cargo has vanished.  Author Stuart Gibbs will visit The Country Bookshop Monday, April 3, at 4 p.m., to introduce Panda-monium as well as his New York Times bestselling Spy School and Space Case series. This event is free and appropriate for children ages 8-12 and their families.

Daughter of a Pirate King,
by Tricia Levenseller

Alosa is the daughter of the infamous Pirate King, the overlord of the seas. When he hears word of a map to an island filled with treasure, he sends the only person he has trained himself — his daughter. She expects her task to be easy but soon encounters a problem, the first mate, Riden. Alosa is just as determined to find the map for her father, but will Riden prove too much to resist? Ages 13 and up.  PS

March Books

By Romey Petite

Eveningland: Stories, by Michael Knight

An American treasure, Michael Knight’s Eveningland is not so much a compilation of short fiction as it is a multi-part portrait of Mobile Bay and the lives of its people. It chronicles the days, from mundane to mythic, leading up to the arrival of a hurricane — a storm that will tear their private worlds asunder. With place as the framing device, the Alabama Gulf Coast inlet hosts a total of seven interlocking stories (like the Vietnam War in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried). Throughout Knight’s prose one hears the voice of a raconteur’s playful spirit — alternatively honest and abashed. His characters are memorable, familiar and genuine. Still, in crafting their private fancies, Knight never fails to incorporate another essential element in Southern fiction — what Flannery O’Connor (to whom the author gives thanks in the acknowledgments) called the grotesque. While the individual stories certainly invite themselves to be anthologized and the format invites each delicacy to be digested a tale at a time, think of it as celebrated storyteller Daniel Wallace of Big Fish meets the format of Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction (1994). The author will be signing copies of his upcoming collection at The Country Bookshop on Thursday, March 9, at 5 p.m. — an event you’ll want to make sure to mark on your calendar

The One Eyed Man, by Ron Currie

The author of Everything Matters! and Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles returns with this lampoon of literalism. K. is a widower who has awoken one day to find himself unable to accept metaphorical language — preferring only simple, blunt, even crude explanations. In seeking someone who will be honest with him, he finds a confidant in Claire, a grocery clerk (at a thinly veiled Whole Foods parody), when he argues with her over incorrect fruit labels. Slogan by slogan he rejects the comfortable padding of the world that surrounds him, even quibbling over the semantics of a bumper sticker. K. becomes an unlikely hero when he’s thrust into a delicate situation, choosing between being a bystander or foiling a robbery in progress, and is turned into the object of society’s fascination — the star of a reality show — and eventually a target of the brutality that asking the wrong questions may beget.

Spaceman of Bohemia, by Jaroslav Kalfar

When a mysterious comet passes within the vicinity of Earth it turns the night sky strange swatches of purple. Jakub Prochazka, the orphaned son of a Communist Party informer, becomes the country’s first astronaut when he undertakes a dangerous mission offering a chance at both heroism and atonement. What he doesn’t anticipate is that while encased on the eight-month journey into deep space, he will long greatly for his wife, Lenka. There, pining for his beloved, and floating in the unknown, he encounters an eloquent spiderlike entity. Kalfar’s debut novel, evoking a Homeric epic, is an exceedingly pensive odyssey.

Exit West, by Mohsin Hamid

Mohsin Hamid, international best-selling author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist and a PEN/Hemingway finalist for Moth Smoke, returns with a love story verging on magical realism. Against the backdrop of a fractious unnamed country on the fault line of an impending civil war, Exit West tells the tale of the romance between Saeed and Nadia. In a land of escalating violence, they hear rumors of doors that will allow them to escape, making a dangerous and costly journey into an uncertain future. They leave their old world behind and struggle to hold on to each other and their sense of who they are.

One of the Boys, by Daniel Magariel

Though a short read, One of the Boys is no small feat, nor a novel for the faint of heart. A confessional, deep-cutting debut novel told from the perspective of the younger of two sons, it grapples with the grim subject of abuse. Two boys leave their mother behind, siding with their father, the parent they consider the lesser of two evils. The youngest boy even conspires to fabricate evidence against his mother to permanently ensure she will never receive custody. In being manipulated into crafting such a scheme, he finds himself culpable in his father’s crimes. As both boys begin to see a different side to their dad — his negligence, addictions and violent temper — they realize they are obeying him not only because they love him but fearing for their lives. Once you’ve glimpsed past the shuttered windows of this broken family, it will be impossible to look away.

Born Both, by Hida Viloria

The upcoming Born Both is a memoir detailing Hida Viloria’s experience of gradually coming to the realization she is intersex — and subsequent endeavors to spread awareness of it as an individual identity. It’s also about trust, consent and what happens when it is betrayed. Growing up, Viloria struggled with a hyper-masculine father and this book is very much an exorcism of that toxic figure. Being an activist in LGBTQIA rights, Viloria has appeared and been interviewed on The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Tyra Banks Show, ABC News, and has also penned articles for The New York Times, CNN.com and The American Journal of BioEthics. Her book’s publication is timely, considering that Hanne Gaby Odiele, a runway model, recently revealed that she was intersex in hopes of spreading awareness and doing away with taboos regarding non-binary bodies. Fans of Jeffrey Eugenides’s novel Middlesex may find that this intimate and jolting account speaks to them in ways fiction, perhaps, cannot.

Sonora, by Hannah Lillith Assadi

Hannah Lillith Assadi’s coming-of-age story, Sonora, is a noteworthy, dreamlike debut. Ahlam, a late bloomer, is the daughter of one world in the Middle East, but two separate visions. Her parents come from both sides of a fault line — Ahlam’s mother is from Israel and her father is a refugee from Palestine. Raised on the barren outskirts of Phoenix, Arizona, Ahlam has known little of the conflict, save for the news her father blasts during dinnertime and the stories he tells to remind her of how lucky she is. Unpopular in school, Ahlam finds a friend and kindred spirit in Laura, a maverick whose mother is from a local reservation. Laura awakens the dormant and shy Ahlam to her womanhood — encouraging her to experiment with drugs, boys and witchcraft. Together, they form a pact, eventually fleeing to New York, where they find there are certain troubles you cannot run from — those you take with you.

CHILDREN’S BOOKS By Angie Tally

Birds, by Kevin Henkes

Just in time for spring comes this lovely new edition of Birds, called the “Perfect book for young readers” by the New York Times Book Review. A little girl watches birds from her window and observes their sizes, colors, shapes, and the way they appear and disappear. She wishes she could fly as they do, but celebrates the one big thing they have in common: singing. Ages 2-4.

This House, Once, by Deborah Freedman

A picture book artist/author and one-time architect, Deborah Freedman presents this absolutely stunning portrait of a house from the ground up. A door that was once a tree; a foundation built of rocks once underground; windows once blowing sand — this a perfect coffee-table-type gift for families moving into a new home or budding architects everywhere. Ages 3-6.

Magic Tree House: World at War, by Mary Pope Osborne

The Magic Tree House books, long staples on beginning readers’ shelves, have gotten a new look and are now presented in three divisions: Magic Tree House titles for beginning chapter book readers; Merlin Missions for more advanced readers; and Fact Trackers for nonfiction fans. Additionally, this newest title in the series World at War is the first Super Edition and is Jack and Annie’s most dangerous mission in the scariest time the world has ever known, World War II. No reader will want to miss this longer story with additional facts and photographs. Ages 7-10.

Grandpa’s Great Escape, by David Walliams
and Tony Ross

Grandpa is Jack’s favorite person in the world, but has become confused and believes he is back in World War II where he was an ace fighter pilot. Jack is the only one who understands him anymore, so when Grandpa is sent to an old folks home, it’s up to Jack to help Grandpa plot a daring escape. As their adventure spins out of control, they will need Grandpa’s fighter pilot know-how and Jack’s real world common sense to get home. Ages 8-12.

Genius, by Leopoldo Gout

Three international teenage coding and hacking geniuses who have created an online presence called the “Lodge” find themselves involved in a high stakes competition arranged by a computer genius who may have more than a game in mind. With detailed illustrations and STEM connections, this book is unlike any other for science-minded fiction readers. Ages 12-16.  PS