October 2016 list by Trish Hull   Recent Releases The Fortunes by Peter Ho Davies This absorbing journey through over 100 years of American history and culture is told by four Chinese Americans (three of whom are inspired by real people). From the building of the transcontinental railroad in the mid-19th century to a modern-day, biracial Chinese American visiting China to adopt a baby girl with his Caucasian wife, their thought-provoking perspectives tie fact and fiction together, illuminating the Asian American experience. Ashes of Fiery Weather by Kathleen Donohoe From Ireland's Great Famine to Brooklyn in the decade after 9/11, this debut novel follows six generations of women in a family of firefighters. Flowing seamlessly from one generation to the next, their stories highlight what it is to live and love under the threat of sudden loss -- the novel opens with the suddenly widowed Norah O'Reilly, whose husband has just died fighting a fire. From there, this largely non-chronologically told tale moves back and forth through time, providing a sense of the Irish American community in the U.S., details of Brooklyn history, and a moving account of 9/11's devastation.  The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead Some authors stick to similar formulas, but Colson Whitehead never writes the same book twice. From a coming-of-age story (Sag Harbor) to a post-apocalyptic tale of zombies (Zone One), the only thing you can expect is evocative writing and sharp social commentary, plus some pop culture references and biting humor. Most of that is in play here, in an unconventional, literal take on the underground railroad. Brutally abused on the Georgia plantation where she is enslaved, Cora escapes -- only to find that the Railroad doesn't guarantee freedom. Eterna and Omega by Leanna Renee Hieber A group of assassins, magicians, mediums and others with rogue talents head to New York to attempt to obtain Eterna, thought to be the key to immortality, for Queen Victoria, in the second novel of the series following The Eterna Files. Here I Am by Jonathan Safran Foer A tale told over four tumultuous weeks in present-day Washington, D.C traces the fracturing of a family in crisis when the three sons of Jacob and Julia confront the paradoxes between the lives they think they want and the lives they are actually living. By the award-winning author of Everything Is Illuminated. The Language of Dying by Sarah Pinborough "In this emotionally gripping, genre-defying novella from Sarah Pinborough, a woman sits at her father's bedside, watching the clock tick away the last hours of his life. Her brothers and sisters--she is the middle child of five--have all turned up over the past week to pay their last respects. Each is traumatized in his or her own way, and the bonds that unite them to each other are fragile--as fragile perhaps as the old man's health. With her siblings all gone, back to their self-obsessed lives, she is now alone with the faltering wreck of her father's cancer-ridden body. It is always at times like this when it--the dark and nameless, the impossible, presence that lingers along the fringes of the dark fields beyond the house--comes calling. As the clock ticks away in the darkness, she can only wait for it to find her, a reunion she both dreads and aches for.." The Regulars  by Georgia Clark Three average best-friends making their way through their 20s discover a magic potion that makes them all supermodel gorgeous, suddenly opening unexpected doors and opportunities for them until the other shoe drops. The Risen  by Ron Rash Estranged for decades after a turbulent 1969 summer spent with a free-spirited redhead, dutiful surgeon Bill and alcoholic rebel Eugene are forced by a shocking reminder to confront the past events that divided them. The Double Life of Liliane by Lily Tuck As the child of a German movie producer father who lives in Italy and a beautiful, artistically talented mother who resides in New York, Liliane's life is divided between those two very different worlds. A shy and observant only child with a vivid imagination, Liliane uncovers the stories of family members as diverse as Moses Mendelssohn, Mary Queen of Scots and an early Mexican adventurer, and pieces together their vivid histories, through both World Wars and across continents? What unfolds is an astonishing and riveting metanarrative: an exploration of self, humanity, and family. The Household Spirit by Tod Wodicka Howie Jeffries -- avid fisherman, longtime GE wastewater plant worker, social recluse -- lives in isolation, out on rural Rt. 29 in Glen Falls, NY. Well, not alone exactly -- there's one other house adjacent to his own. But although Howie and Emily Phane have been neighbors since the day she was born twenty-odd years earlier, they've never actually spoken. Both have their reasons--Howie is debilitatingly shy and Emily tries to hide the fact that she suffers from a nighttime affliction that makes her terrified to go to sleep--but when tragedy strikes, the neighbors are forced into a friendship so surprising that neither of them could have ever imagined how it will change their lives. Contact your librarian for more great books!