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Forthcoming Books: February 2015
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Here are some of the best-reviewed books coming up in February. You can request them before they are published, and the library will contact you when they are available.
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A Spool of Blue Thread
by Anne Tyler
The changing needs of aging parents impact a family gathering during which Abby Whitshank relates how her husband and she fell in love during the summer of 1959 and shared decades of marriage impacted by children and long-held secrets. Reading-group guide available. By the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Breathing Lessons. 125,000 first printing
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The Marauders
by Tom Cooper
After the BP oil spill devastates the Gulf Coast, the oddballs and lowlifes who live in the sleepy, working-class bayou town of Jeannette will do anything to reverse their fortunes, including Gus Lindquist, a pill-addicted, one-armed treasure hunter obsessed with finding the lost treasure of pirate Jean Lafitte. 30,000 first printing.
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We are pirates : a novel
by Daniel Handler
A father and daughter, dreaming of outlaw glory, assemble ragtag crews to pursue their respective ambitions to become pirates in the San Francisco Bay. By the best-selling author of Who Could That Be at This Hour? Tour
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Jam on the Vine
by Lashonda Barnett
Discovering a love for journalism upon stealing a newspaper from her mother's white employer, precocious Ivoe Williams eventually flees her segregated community to launch a first female-run African-American newspaper at the side of her lover. Online reading-group guide. By the award-winning author of I Got Thunder. Tour
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Disgruntled : a novel
by Asali Solomon
In a powerful coming-of-age tale that also doubles as a portrait of Philadelphia in the late 80s and early 90s, Kenya Curtis, who knows that she is different, but can't put her finger on why, grows increasingly disgruntled by her inability to find any place, thing or person that feels like home.
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The beige man
by Helene Tursten
"Goteborg, Sweden: A high-speed chase of a stolen BMW takes a chilling turn when the two police officers involved witness a gruesome hit-and-run. When they finally recover the abandoned vehicle, search dogs are unable to trace the thieves, but they do uncover an entirely different horror: the half-naked corpse of a young girl in a nearby root cellar. As Detective Inspector Irene Huss and her colleagues struggle to put the pieces together, they discover a disturbing connection.
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My Sunshine Away
by M. O. Walsh
A man reflects on the summer of his 14th year, where in Baton Rouge he fell in love with a golden-haired girl across the street before an unspeakable crime shattered illusions in his seemingly idyllic neighborhood. A first novel. Tour.
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A touch of stardust
by Kate Alcott
Taking a job at the studio where David O. Selznick is filming Gone with the Wind, Julie Crawford becomes an assistant to Carole Lombard, a rising actress from Julie's hometown who embarks on a scandalous affair with Clark Gable. By the New York Times best-selling author of The Dressmaker. 75,000 first printing. Tour
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Nobody walks
by Mick Herron
"Set in the same fictional London as his CWA Gold Dagger Award-winning Slough House series, Mick Herron now introduces Tom Bettany, an ex-spook with a violent past and only one thing to live for: Avenging his son's death. Tom Bettany is working at a meat processing plant in France when he gets a voicemail from an Englishwoman he doesn't know telling him that his estranged 26-year-old son is dead--Liam Bettany fell from his London balcony, where he was smoking dope. Now for the first time since he cut all ties years ago, Bettany returns home to London to find out the truth about his son's death.
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The secrets of midwives
by Sally Hepworth
Determined to hide the identity of her baby's father from others, a third-generation midwife is separated from and bound to her mother and grandmother by a similar secret from the past. Discussion guide available online.
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Find me : a novel
by Laura Van den Berg
Joy, a loner who works the graveyard shift at a grocery store, finds herself immune to a strange and fatal virus that is sweeping the United States and sets off across the devastated country in search of her birth mother. By the author of The Isle of Youth
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Into the Savage Country
by Shannon Burke
While on a perilous expedition into Crow territory in the 1820s, William Wyeth discovers the depth of loyalty among men and the lengths people will go in order to survive when he becomes trapped in the center of a deadly boundary dispute between Native American tribes, the British government and American trapping brigades. 25,000 first printing. Tour.
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The Country of Ice Cream Star
by Sandra Newman
Enduring a nomadic existence in the aftermath of a disease that kills all humans once they reach the age of 20, 15-year-old Ice Cream Star risks her freedom and life to travel dangerous territory in search of a cure. By the author of The Only Good Thing Anyone Has Ever Done. 50,000 first printing
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Making Nice
by Matt Sumell
Lashing out at the world around him after the death of his mother, Alby drink; sleeps with women; and finds his anger, kindness and his capacity for good making appearances when he least expects them. Tour.
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The room : a novel
by Jonas Karlsson
Bjorn is a compulsive, exacting bureaucrat who discovers a secret room at the government office where he works--a secret room that no one else in his office will acknowledge. When Bjorn is in his room, what his coworkers see is him standing by the wall and staring off into space looking dazed, relaxed, and decidedly creepy. Bjorn's bizarre behavior eventually leads his coworkers to try to have him fired, but Bjorn will turn the tables on them with help from his secret room.
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Fiercombe Manor
by Kate Riordan
Banished to rural Gloucestershire after becoming pregnant out of wedlock in 1933, a naïve young woman becomes suspicious about the owners of the house where she awaits the birth of her child. By the author of Birdcage Walk. 25,000 first printing
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She weeps each time you're born
by Quan Barry
The tumultuous history of reunified Vietnam is experienced by a young girl born with the ability to hear the voices of the dead. A first novel by the award-winning author of Water Puppets. 25,000 first printing. Tour
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Two Strangers
by Beryl Matthews
Poplar, London, 1920. Fourteen-year-old Victoria Keats is horrified when her father demands that she go to work for wealthy Mr Preston everyone knows why he takes young girls into his house. But her violent father, who s never let her forget she s not the son he wanted, won t listen to her concerns and when she stands up for herself, he throws her out of their dingy little house in the slums. Intelligent, book-loving Vicki vows to make her father regret this day; but she is all alone in the world. Despite her courage and quick wits, it seems likely she will starve until two men, both complete strangers, provide her with no-strings-attached help.
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Of Irish Blood
by Mary Pat Kelly
Fleeing a crushing affair to return to the Old World her family fled, Nora Kelly joins the Left Bank society of early 20th-century Paris, where she becomes a revolutionary in the struggle to free Ireland. By the author of Galway Bay
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This house is not for sale : a novel
by E. C. Osondu
A powerful tale of family and community, This House Is Not for Sale brings to life an African neighborhood and one remarkable house, seen through the eyes of a young member of the household. The house lies in a town seemingly lost in time, full of colorful, larger-than-life characters; at the narrative’s heart are Grandpa, the family patriarch whose occasional cruelty is balanced by his willingness to open his doors to those in need, and the house itself, which becomes a character in its own right and takes on the scale of legend.
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Head of State
by Andrew Marr
As the United Kingdom decides whether or not to remain a member of the European Union or go its own way in September of 2017, a group of ruthless killers will stop at nothing to keep a shocking secret at the very heart of the government that could change everything in an instant from being revealed.
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Long way down
by Michael Sears
Working as a financial investigator after two years in federal prison, Jason Stafford looks into a biofuel engineer's claims about being set up by dangerous adversaries. By the best-selling Shamus Award-winning author of Black Fridays
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Karen Memory
by Elizabeth Bear
Hugo-Award winning author Elizabeth Bear offers something new in Karen Memory, an absolutely entrancing steampunk novel set in Seattle in the late 19th century—an era when the town was called Rapid City, when the parts we now call Seattle Underground were the whole town (and still on the surface), when airships plied the trade routes bringing would-be miners heading up to the gold fields of Alaska, and steam-powered mechanicals stalked the waterfront. Karen is a “soiled dove,” a young woman on her own who is making the best of her orphaned state by working in Madame Damnable’s high-quality bordello. Through Karen’s eyes we get to know the other girls in the house—a resourceful group—and the poor and the powerful of the town.
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There's something I want you to do : stories
by Charles Baxter
In a collection of interrelated stories, the author explores virtues and vices, which are cast with unforgettable characters who appear and reappear throughout this volume where their actions are equally divided between hateful and heroic. 20,000 first printing. Tour.
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Before He Finds Her
by Michael Kardos
Hiding in Witness Protection after being assumed murdered by her father, Melanie secretly embarks on an affair with a teacher before returning to her former home to confront her would-be killer. By the Pushcart Prize-winning author of The Three-Day Affair
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Crazy Love You
by Lisa Unger
Enjoying a successful career at the side of a destructive friend who helped him escape bullies in childhood, Ian fears for his life when his friend becomes irrationally angry about Ian's new relationship. By the New York Times best-selling author of Beautiful Lies and In the Blood
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Hush Hush
by Laura Lippman
Taking a case that challenges her busy childcare schedule, Tess Monaghan and new partner, Sandy Sanchez, assess the security needs of an imperious Baltimore woman whose family reunion is overshadowed by a violent stalker. By the New York Times best-selling author of After I'm Gone. 150,000 first printing. Tour
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Among thieves
by John Clarkson
When former gang leader Manny Guzman's ambitious cousin asks for help after being brutally and wrongly dismissed from her brokerage firm, a team of underworld associates led by ex-con James Beck plan a lucrative heist targeting formidable enemies.
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