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Best of the Month ... for Adults
Best of the Month ... for Adults
In 1904, a young German couple sets out to start a new life and a family in America, settling in Beatrice, Missouri. They find a small town filled with curious characters, some kinder than others. Tracing one household through four generations, British author Alex George offers a warmhearted and winning debut novel buoyed by music and humor throughout. Buy Now
Annawadi, a ramshackle Mumbai slum on a half-acre of land owned by the Sahar International Airport, is a place of misery. In this remarkable work of narrative nonfiction, Pulitzer Prize-winning New Yorker contributor Katherine Boo reveals that it's also a place of surprising hope. Introducing readers to Annawadi's residents as they strive to improve their lives, Boo opens our eyes to the casualties of India's dramatic economic change and gives voice to the individuals behind the statistics. Buy Now
Beauty and loss suffuse Peter Cameron's atmospheric period novel, set in the English countryside in the 1950s. When she is hired to care for a dying woman at the woman's isolated home, a young nurse discovers that the secluded mansion is also inhabited by the dying woman's wounded-veteran son. Exploring themes of love and longing, Cameron's skillfully wrought tale lures readers into a somber, dreamlike world. Buy Now
Thinking the Twentieth Century
Before the great historian and public intellectual Tony Judt died of Lou Gehrig's Disease in 2010, he and fellow historian Timothy Snyder sat together for months, discussing the triumphs and tragedies of the last one hundred years. Insightful, lucid, and lively, these conversations provide an illuminating view not only of the momentous events that have shaped the world of today, but also of an extraordinary mind that left us too soon. Buy Now
In Alaskan author Eowyn Ivey's charming fiction debut -- inspired by a Russian folk tale -- middle-aged, childless couple Jack and Mabel are trying to start anew as homesteaders in the unforgiving Alaskan wilderness of the 1920s. In a rare lighthearted moment, they fashion a child out of snow. The next morning, the snow child is gone. But they soon see a little girl skittering through the nearby woods. Who is she? The story that follows turns on a magical combination of mystery and love's power. Buy Now
In Josh Bazell's imaginative follow-up to 2009's Beat the Reaper, mob-hit-man-turned-physician Pietro Brnwa (aka Dr. Peter Brown) sets out, at the behest of a reclusive billionaire, on a peculiar mission: accompanying a sexy paleontologist on a search for a Bigfoot-like monster. A madcap, darkly humorous caper that's just as much fun as its oddball predecessor. Buy Now
We've all seen Leonardo da Vinci's "Vitruvian Man" -- a drawing depicting a male figure, arms outspread, in two different poses set within a circle and a square. But what compelled da Vinci to draw it, and what did it signify to him? Journalist and author Toby Lester brings to light the astonishing history of the iconic image and the genius behind it. Buy Now
Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, the director of the American Museum of Natural History's Hayden Planetarium, has a talent for making complex science clear and understandable for almost every reader (no wonder he's frequently seen on television shows ranging from NOVA to The Colbert Report). In this collection, he lays out a compelling case for the enduring value of space exploration, even in trying economic times. Buy Now
What We Talk about When We Talk about Anne Frank
This collection of eight short stories from acclaimed writer Nathan Englander (For the Relief of Unbearable Urges) proves he has an unparalleled command of the form. Bold and provocative, funny and deeply felt, Englander's stories are at once contemporary and timeless. Buy Now
In this stunning collection of 13 short stories, acclaimed writer Helen Simpson follows her characters into crises both personal (marriages, friendships, death) and global (war, climate change, death). Framed by the author's crisp intelligence and wistful humor, these are snapshots of the contemporary world, taken from cruising altitude on a crystal-clear day. Buy Now
At last! The inside scoop on the Mad Men-era advertising world from a real-life Peggy Olson. Ogilvy & Mather copywriter-turned-exec Jane Maas (she masterminded the "I Love New York" campaign) offers a revealing look at the hard-drinking debauchery that defined Madison Avenue culture in the '60 and '70s. Maas has many a titillating tale to tell, but also addresses deeper issues -- like the pervasive sexism and tough choices working women routinely confronted. Buy Now
Stirring together fiction and history in one mind-bending, genre-blending work, Francis Spufford evokes a rarely-explored time (the late 1950s) in which the Soviet Union was engaged in an all-out effort to outdo American capitalism -- and appeared to be succeeding. Of course, the Soviet "planned economy" did not turn out as planned. But Spufford paints a portrait of a fascinating era, rendering complex issues with clarity. Buy Now
According to Sebastian Seung, an MIT professor making waves with his brain research, the key to our individual personalities, identities, and memories lies not within our genes, but within our brains -- specifically, in the millions of connections among our brains' cells, the network that wires the thinking machine. Seung has embarked on an effort to map these connections, one neuron, one synapse, at a time. A mind-blowing look at a rapidly advancing area of scientific research. Buy Now
