By Marie-Helene Bertino
Recommended By Sonia Grgas, Reference Librarian

A first novel by a Pushcart Prize-winning writer traces the unlikely bond between a precocious 9-year-old jazz singer, a divorcee teacher who would reunite with her high-school sweetheart and a club owner facing the imminent loss of his Philadelphia business.

By Albert Brooks
Recommended By Pam Martin, Assistant Library Director

“A near-future world struggles with the challenges of a dramatically aging population revitalized by the cure for cancer, a scenario that is challenged by an unprecedented natural disaster that drives the government into bankruptcy (From the Publisher).”

By Sherman Alexie
Recommended By Amy B., Children's Librarian

Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all–white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.

By Steve Harvey
Recommended By Alisa Fogel, Librarian-Programming

“Counsels women on understanding the mindset of a man when it comes to relationships, covering topics such as cheating, sex, age, family, money, respect, and commitment (From the Publisher).”

Became the movie: Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man.

By Toni Jordan

Carefully controlling her world through obsessive counting practices, OCD sufferer and former teacher Grace finds herself increasingly unable to relate to others. Estranged from her family, her life is disrupted by potential romance when a kind stranger invites her to share a café table.

By Abbi Waxman
Series Bookish Life of Nina Hill #2

Moving to Los Angeles to escape memories of an awful accident, Laura Costello finds herself homeless in a fire, taken in by a rogue bookseller running a lovely but illegal boardinghouse, and tasked with rescuing a losing trivia team.

By Sara Benincasa

The comedian and radio host recollects her experiences with agoraphobia and how she, with the help of her friends and family who drew her back from the edge, broke free from fear to live in the life she was meant to live.

By Brandon Sanderson

On his birthday, Alcatraz Smedry receives a bag of sand, an inheritance from his lost parents, but it is stolen by the evil Librarians who want to use it to take over the Free Kingdoms and it is up to Alcatraz and the freedom fighters to stop them.

By Tim Manley
Recommended By Stacey Mencher, Technology and Applications Manager

Favorite fairy tale characters are depicted as living in the 21st century and find themselves braving creeps on dating sites, gluten allergies, and Facebook stalkers.

By Jami Attenberg
Recommended By Lisa H., Readers' Services Librarian

Hiding the truth about her unhappiness and struggles with anxiety from everyone including her family, best friend and therapist, an alcoholic designer joins her loved ones in a reevaluation of family strength in the wake of a newborn’s heartbreaking ailment.

By Avery Monsen

An illustrated compendium of the humorous existential ruminations of people, animals, legendary monsters, and inanimate objects.

By Jules Moulin

Ten years after single mother and college professor Ally Hughes decides against a relationship with Jake, one of her students who challenges her to open up her life to love, Jake reenters her life--as her grown daughter's new boyfriend.

By Michael Chabon

In 1939 New York City, Joe Kavalier, a refugee from Hitler's Prague, joins forces with his Brooklyn-born cousin, Sammy Clay, to create comic-book superheroes inspired by their own fantasies, fears, and dreams.

By Jon Stewart

The host of the award-winning humorous news program offers tongue-in-cheek insight into American democracy with coverage of such topics as the republican qualities of ancient Rome, the antics of our nation's founders, and the ludicrous nature of today's media.

By Neil Gaiman
Recommended By Ralph Guiteau, Readers' Services Librarian
With Ralph Guiteau, Readers' Services Librarian

Wednesday, April 25. 7:30 PM

“On the plane home to attend the funerals of his wife and best friend, Shadow, just released from prison, encounters Mr. Wednesday, an enigmatic stranger who seems to know a lot about him, and when Mr. Wednesday offers him a job as his bodyguard, Shadow accepts and is plunged into a dark and perilous world, where the soul of America is at stake (From the Publisher).”

By Brock Clarke

Sam Pulsifer is determined to put his past behind him after serving a prison term for torching an American literary landmark and killing two people in the blaze, but when the homes of notable American writers begin to go up in smoke, his history makes him the prime suspect.

By Jeffrey Archer
Recommended By Arlene Silverman, Library Clerk

“…Some of these stories will make you laugh while others will bring you to tears but, once again, every one of them will demand that you keep turning the page until you finally discover what happens to this remarkable cast of characters (From the Publisher).”

By Ben H. Winters

When a secret cabal of radical scientific revolutionaries launches an attack on Russian high society's high-tech lifestyle, the classic love story's heroes--Anna Karenina and Count Alexei Vronsky--must fight back with all their courage, all their gadgets, and all the power of a sleek new cyborg model like nothing the world has ever seen.

By George Orwell
Recommended By Stacey Mencher, Technology and Applications Manager
With Jean Simpson, Readers' Services Librarian

Tuesday, July 14, 2015. 7:30 PM.

A satire on totalitarianism in which farm animals overthrow their human owner and set up their own government.

Became the movie: Animal Farm.

By Fredrik Backman
Recommended By Isabel Zinman, Readers' Services Librarian

Taken hostage by a failed bank robber while attending an open house, eight anxiety–prone strangers—including a redemption–seeking bank director, two couples who would fix their marriages and a plucky octogenarian—discover their unexpected common traits.

By Brock Clarke

“… a delightfully dark story of Sam Pulsifer, the "accidental arsonist and murderer" narrator who leads readers through a multilayered, flame-filled adventure about literature, lies, love and life … (Publishers Weekly).”

By Jeffrey Cohen
Series Aaron Tucker Mysteries

In this, the third Aaron Tucker mystery, Aaron, fresh from a trip to Hollywood to "take meetings" on his screenplay, finds himself dragged kicking and screaming once again into investigating a murder, this time of a man in a nearby town shot while walking his dog at night. The young man accused of the crime has Asperger’s Syndrome, the same autism-related disorder that Aaron's son Ethan has had since birth.

By Jill A. Davis

Taking a much-needed break from her career and love life when her mother is diagnosed with a highly treatable form of cancer, lawyer Emily is disillusioned by her mother's dramatic attention-seeking behaviors, remembers the father who left when she was five, and takes an unobtrusive job in her father's law firm.

By Sarah Vowell
Recommended By Sharon Long, Assistant Library Director

“Sarah Vowell exposes the glorious conundrums of American history and culture with wit, probity, and an irreverent sense of humor. With Assassination Vacation, she takes us on a road trip like no other - a journey to the pit stops of American political murder and through the myriad ways they have been used for fun and profit, for political and cultural advantage (From the Publisher).”

By Rainbow Rowell
Recommended By Jessikah Chautin, Community Engagement Specialist
With Stacey Mencher, Readers' Services Librarian

Monday, March 14, 2016. 7 PM.

Gossiping and sharing their personal secrets on e-mail in spite of their company's online monitoring practices, Beth and Jennifer unwittingly amuse Internet security officer Lincoln, who unexpectedly falls for Beth.

By Lemony Snicket
Series Series of Unfortunate Events

After the sudden death of their parents, the three Baudelaire children must depend on each other and their wits when it turns out that the distant relative who is appointed their guardian is determined to use any means necessary to get their fortune.

By Gil McNeil
Series Jo Mackenzie Novels

Suddenly widowed by a car crash that ended the life of her unfaithful husband, Jo moves to a small seaside community and takes over her grandmother's knitting shop, where she is introduced to a dessert-addicted knitting club.

By Josh Bazell
Recommended By Evelyn Hershkowitz, Readers' Services Librarian

In this debut thriller, an intern at a run-down Manhattan hospital who's atoning for his former life as a mob hit man encounters in the course of a single day a patient with a mystery illness, a 21-year-old girl about to have a leg amputated, and a former mob associate.

By Chuck Palahniuk

Invited by a notorious playboy to a Paris hotel, a Manhattan legal associate discovers that she is a test subject for the final development of sex toys for women.

By Libba Bray

When a plane crash strands thirteen teen beauty contestants on a mysterious island, they struggle to survive, to get along with one another, to combat the island's other diabolical occupants, and to learn their dance numbers in case they are rescued in time for the competition.

By Sarah Silverman
Recommended By Pam Martin, Assistant Library Director

From the outrageously filthy and oddly innocent comedienne who has her own show on Comedy Central comes a memoir that is at once personal, poignant and laugh-out-loud funny and includes humorous essays, embarrassing photos, mortifying childhood diary entries and truly humiliating e-mails to and from her comedian friends.

By Roger Rosenblatt
Recommended By Brenda Cherry, Reference Librarian

 “In his second novel, Rosenblatt creates a satire about higher education that would be hilarious if it didn't come quite so close to the truth. The essence of college life taken to the extreme will make readers laugh out loud (Library Journal).”

By Claire Cook
Recommended By Pam Martin, Assistant Library Director

"A professional home stager in the Boston suburbs, Sandy Sullivan, after reading her family the riot act, takes a job staging a boutique hotel in Atlanta where she becomes immersed in other people’s lives while trying to fix up her own (From the Publisher)."

By Jennifer Crusie
Recommended By Sonia Grgas, Reference Librarian

Agreeing not to pursue a relationship after one date, unlikely lovers Min Dobbs and Cal Morrisey are thrown together again in the wake of such factors as a jealous ex-boyfriend, a determined psychologist, and a bizarrely intelligent cat.

By Chuck Thompson
Recommended By Ralph Guiteau, Readers' Services Librarian

“Describes the author’s road trip investigation into the cultural divide of the United States during which he met possum-hunting conservatives and prayer warriors before concluding that both sides might benefit if the South seceded (From the Publisher).”

By Tracey Jackson

A funny, fearless, no-holds-barred look at aging--hormone replacement therapy, online dating, eye lifts, and all.

By Adriana Trigiani
Series Big Stone Gap Novels
Recommended By Evelyn Hershkowitz, Readers' Services Librarian

“Big Cherry Holler, the extraordinary sequel to Big Stone Gap, takes us back to the mountain life that enchanted us in Adriana Trigiani’s best selling debut novel (From the Publisher).”

By Adriana Trigiani
Series Big Stone Gap Novels
Recommended By Evelyn Hershkowitz, Readers' Services Librarian

“Ave Maria's life in Big Stone Gap, VA, is essentially the same as it's been for all 35 years of her life, but after her mother's will reveals that the man Ave thought was her father isn't, she begins to lose hold of her routine… In between panic attacks and shouting matches, Ave tries to figure out what all these changes mean in her life (Library Journal).”

By Dave Barry

The humorist describes the lives of the troubled denizens of Coconut Grove.

By Ben Fountain
Recommended By Ralph Guiteau, Readers' Services Librarian
With Ralph Guiteau, Readers' Services Librarian

Tuesday, May 14, 2013.  7:30 PM.

A satire set in Texas during America's war in Iraq that explores the gaping national disconnect between the war at home and the war abroad. Follows the surviving members of the heroic Bravo Squad through one exhausting stop in their media-intensive "Victory Tour" at Texas Stadium, football mecca of the Dallas Cowboys, their fans, promoters, and cheerleaders.

By Charles Dickens

Ester Summerson is the ward of Mr. Jarndyce whose case in Chancery Court seems to have no end.

By Alexander McCall Smith
Series No.1 Ladies Detective Agency

“Precious Ramotswe and her assistant, Grace Makutsi, investigate local advice columnist Aunty Emang, who may be linked to trouble at a local medical clinic and the cobra that somehow ended up in Precious's office (From the Publisher).”

By Katherine Center
Recommended By Evelyn Hershkowitz, Readers' Services Librarian

Hired as superstar actor Jack Stapleton’s bodyguard, Hannah Brooks must pose as his girlfriend while visiting his family’s ranch in Texas where she finds it easy to protect him, but hard to protect her own, long-neglected heart.

By Tom Wolfe

Sherman McCoy, a young investment banker in Manhattan, finds himself arrested following a freak accident and becomes involved with prosecutors, politicians, the press, and assorted hustlers.

By Emily Henry
Recommended By Evelyn Hershkowitz, Readers' Services Librarian

Agreeing to a holiday escape to the country, literary agent Nora keeps running into a bookish, hardheaded, arrogant editor she knows from Manhattan, and wishes she didn’t, even as she discovers they have more in common than previously thought.

By Desmond MacNamara

In the tradition of Flann O'Brien's comic Irish extravaganzas, Desmond MacNamara's novel is a hilarious excursion into Irish history and literature. A gentleman named Mountmellik and his servant MacGilla escape from the Limbo where characters from unfinished literary works are trapped, and enjoy life on Earth so much that they summon from Limbo other literary characters: a young woman named Loreto Amargamente (from an unfinished story by F. Scott Fitzgerald), an Irish maiden named Liadin (from George Moore's unrealized historical novel), and, most terrifying, the eight-feet-tall Eevell of Craglee, Queen of the Munster Hosts of Fairy. These five hatch a scheme by which they can spring more characters from literary Limbo and, by finishing and publishing their stories, send them to Parnassus, all the while holding the author captive so that they themselves won't be forced to go. But during a bizarre climax, the author escapes and sends this novel to his publisher, immortalizing them against their will.

By Jonathan Tropper

“…In the marvelously funny and self-deprecating voice of Joe, Tropper fully realizes his characters and tells their stories with poignancy, wit, and charm. This coming-of-age story is a keeper…(From Library Journal).”

By Tina Fey
Recommended By Megan Kass, Systems Manager, Jackie, Head of Readers' Services, Rosemarie Germaine, Senior Library Clerk, Pam Martin, Assistant Library Director, Amy B., Children's Librarian

Actress Tina Fey recounts her life, sharing how she managed to fulfill her dream of one day becoming a comedian on television and discussing her childhood, marriage, career, and views on beauty, politics, motherhood, and relationships.

By Meg Cabot
Series Boy

“Twentysomething Kate Mackenzie, who works and lives in New York City, is a typical chick-lit heroine: she hates her boss and has just broken up with her longtime boyfriend because he can't commit. Her job as a human resources representative at the New York Journal brings her to the center of controversy when her boss makes her fire the popular Dessert Cart Lady, Ida Lopez …  The grievance suit that ensues brings Kate in contact with the perfect guy, but he's a lawyer, so it takes Kate a while to realize that they're meant to be together (Library Journal).”

By Kurt Vonnegut

The author questions the condition of modern man in this novel depicting a science fiction writer's struggle to find peace and sanity in the world.