Handle with Care
by Jodi Picoult
Published 2009 by Atria Books

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780743296410

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Jacket Notes:

"Handle with Care" explores the knotty tangle of medical ethics and personal morality. When faced with the reality of a fetus who will be disabled, should a parent have the right to consider termination? Bestselling author Picoult explores a timely yet controversial issue in her latest novel. Things break all the time.

Day breaks, waves break, voices break.

Promises break.

Hearts break.

Every expectant parent will tell you that they don't want a perfect baby, just a healthy one. Charlotte and Sean O'Keefe would have asked for a healthy baby, too, if they'd been given the choice. Instead, their lives are made up of sleepless nights, mounting bills, the pitying stares of "luckier" parents, and maybe worst of all, the what-ifs. What if their child had been born healthy? But it's all worth it because Willow is, well, funny as it seems, perfect. She's smart as a whip, on her way to being as pretty as her mother, kind, brave, and for a five-year-old an unexpectedly deep source of wisdom. Willow is Willow, in sickness and in health.Everything changes, though, after a series of events forces Charlotte and her husband to confront the most serious what-ifs of all. What if Charlotte should have known earlier of Willow's illness? What if things could have been different? What if their beloved Willow had never been born? To do Willow justice, Charlotte must ask herself these questions and one more. What constitutes a valuable life?Emotionally riveting and profoundly moving, "Handle with Care" brings us into the heart of a family bound by an incredible burden, a desperate will to keep their ties from breaking, and, ultimately, a powerful capacity for love. Written with the grace and wisdom she's become famous for, beloved #1 "New York Times" bestselling author Jodi Picoult offers us an unforgettable novel about the fragility of life and the lengths we will go to protect it.

Paths of Glory
by Jeffrey Archer
Published 2009 by St. Martin's Press

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780312539511

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Jacket Notes:

Archer's new epic tells the story of George Mallory, who once told a reporter that he wanted to climb Mt. Everest, "because it is there." Not until the last page of Archer's extraordinary novel will readers find out what happened to Mallory. Some people have dreams that are so magnificent that if they were to achieve them, their place in history would be guaranteed. Francis Drake, Robert Scott, Charles Lindbergh, Amy Johnson, Edmund Hilary, Neil Armstrong, and Lewis and Clark are among such individuals.

But what if one man had such a dream, and once he'd fulfilled it, there was no proof that he had achieved his ambition?

Jeffrey Archer's latest book, "Paths of Glory," is the story of such a man---George Mallory. Mallory once told an American reporter that he wanted to climb Mt. Everest, "because it's there." On his third attempt in 1924, at age thirty-seven, he was last seen six hundred feet from the top. His body was found in 1999, and it still remains a mystery whether he ever reached the summit.

But only after you've turned the last page of this extraordinary novel, inspired by a true story, will you be able to decide if George Mallory's name should be added to the list of legends, in which case another name would have to be removed. "Paths of Glory" is truly a triumph.

Devil's Brood
by Sharon Kay Penman
Published 2008 by Putnam Adult

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780399155260

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Jacket Notes:

The long-awaited and highly anticipated final volume in Penmanas trilogy of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaineaa tumultuous conclusion to this timeless story of love, power, ambition, and betrayal.

Where the second novel in the trilogy, "Time And Chance," dealt with the extraordinary politics of the twelfth century, climaxing with the murder of Thomas Becket and Henryas confrontation with the Church and self-imposed exile to Ireland, "Devilas Brood" centers on the implosion of a family. And because it is a royal family whose domains span the English Channel and whose alliances encompass the Christian world, that collapse will have dire consequences. This is a story of betrayal as Henryas three eldest sons and his wife enter into a rebellion against him, aligning themselves with his bitterest enemy, King Louis of France. But it is also the story of a great king whose brilliance forged an empire but whose personal blind spots led him into the most serious mistake of his life.

Sharon Kay Penman has created a novel of tremendous power, as two strong-willed, passionate people clash, a family divides, and a marriage ends in all but name. Curiously, it is a novel without villainsaonly flawed human beings caught up in misperceptions and bad judgment calls. Most devastating to Henry was not his sonsa rebellion but his wifeas betrayal in joining them. How could it happen that two people whose love for each other was all consuming end up as bitter adversaries? That is the heart of Penmanas tale in "Devilas Brood."

The Sorrows of an American
by Siri Hustvedt
Published 2008 by Henry Holt & Company

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780805079081

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Jacket Notes:

"The Sorrows of an American" is a soaring feat of storytelling about the immigrant experience and the ghosts that haunt families from one generation to another. "The Sorrows of an American" is a soaring feat of storytelling about the immigrant experience and the ghosts that haunt families from one generation to anotherWhen Erik Davidsen and his sister, Inga, find a disturbing note from an unknown woman among their dead father's papers, they believe he may be implicated in a mysterious death. "The Sorrows of an American" tells the story of the Davidsen family as brother and sister uncover its secrets and unbandage its wounds in the year following their father's funeral.Returning to New York from Minnesota, the grieving siblings continue to pursue the mystery behind the note. While Erik's fascination with his new tenants and emotional vulnerability to his psychiatric patients threaten to overwhelm him, Inga is confronted by a hostile journalist who seems to know a secret connected to her dead husband, a famous novelist. As each new mystery unfolds, Erik begins to inhabit his emotionally hidden father's history and to glimpse how his impoverished childhood, the Depression, and the war shaped his relationship with his children, while Inga must confront the reality of her husband's double life.A novel about fathers and children, listening and deafness, recognition and blindness; the pain of speaking and the pain of keeping silent, the ambiguities of memory, loneliness, illness, and recovery. Siri Hustvedt's exquisitely moving prose reveals one family's hidden sorrows through an extraordinary mosaic of secrets and stories that reflect the fragmented nature of identity itself.

Envy the Night
by Michael Koryta
Published 2008 by Minotaur Books

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780312361587

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Jacket Notes:

From Edgar Award-finalist Koryta comes a dark and mature novel of a young mantrying to escape his past. Martin's Press. "Michael Koryta earns a seat at the high table of neo-noir crime writers by putting a fresh spin on the fathers-and-sons narrative."

---"The New York Times

""Koryta is one of the best of the best, plain and simple."

---Michael Connelly

"I've read the heir apparent. There is grit and determination in this writing; there is heart and character; the threat of violence first simmers, then boils over. The pulse quickens. This diabolical novel, laid out in simple but eloquent prose and pitch-perfect dialogue, heralds a changing of the guard. I have seen the future of 'The Best Mystery Writer in America' and its name is Michael Koryta."

---Ridley Pearson

"Superb writing and storytelling from Michael Koryta, one of crime fiction's brightest young talents. "Envy the Night" represents his finest work to date."

---George Pelecanos"

"In this first stand-alone novel from the critically acclaimed Edgar Award-finalist, Michael Koryta fulfills his early promise with a dark and mature novel of a young man trying to escape his past.

It has been seven years since Frank Temple III joined the rest of the world in learning his father's bloody secret: The U.S. marshal maintained a covert career as a contract killer, a double-life that ended in suicide to avoid prosecution and prison.

The shocking revelation triggered years of anonymous drifting for Frank, time spent running from his legacy and struggling to believe that the father he'd loved so dearly was entirely in the wrong. After all, the victims hadn't been innocents. And Devin Matteson, the man who'd lured his father into the killing game only to later give him up to the FBI, is probably the darkest of the lot. Those are troubling thoughts, and Frank tries to stay away from them. But when an old family friend calls to say that Matteson is returning to the isolated Wisconsin lake that was once sacred ground for their families, it's a homecoming Frank knows he can't allow.

His arrival in town reveals a situation far from the expected, though.

While Matteson is nowhere to be found, his old cabin is indeed occupied---by a strange, beautiful woman and a nervous man with a gun. When a pair of assassins from Miami arrive on their heels, Frank knows Matteson can't be far behind. And while the wise move would be to call in the police and get out of town fast, that just doesn't feel right. After all, contract killer or not, Frank's father was at heart a teacher. And his son excelled at the lessons.

Family secrets, mob hitmen, and a father's shadowy legacy combine to make this Koryta's most compelling thriller yet.

"This intricately plotted tale of revenge [has]...characters we root for and twists that keep us guessing. It's one of the best books of the year."

---"Indianapolis Star" "Addictively readable."

---C"hicago Tribune

""Sentence for polished sentence, no one in the genre writes better."

---"Kirkus Reviews

""Stylish prose...well observed."

---"The" "New York Times

""Haunting writing...sophisticated plotting."

---"Publishers Weekly

""It's time to stop referring to Michael Koryta as a boy wonder and just focus on the sheer wonder of his storytelling. Koryta knows how to put his characters---and his readers---into an ever-tightening vise of twists, turns, and conspiracies, but it's his empathy that makes his work stand out."

---Laura Lippman

"For a while now Michael Koryta has been called one of the rising young talents in crime fiction. I say enough of that....Koryta is one of the best of the best, plain and simple."

---Michael Connelly