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Recommended Reading

Twenty years after her testimony results in a conviction and leads to her marriage to the case’s detective, Nell Jarreau is shocked to learn that new evidence has exonerated the man she had helped send to prison, a situation that overwhelms her with guilt and strains her family ties.

Documents the true story of Warsaw Zoo keepers and resistance activists Jan and Antonina Zabinski, who in the aftermath of Germany’s invasion of Poland saved the lives of hundreds of Jewish citizens by smuggling them into empty cages and their home villa.

Leaving the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white high school, Junior struggles to find his place in his new surroundings in order to escape his destiny back on the reservation.

Visiting an isolated Lake Superior isle to study wolf behavior, ranger Anna Pigeon joins a scientific group that subsequently discovers unusual DNA evidence suggesting that a giant and dangerous wolf hybrid has been introduced by an unknown source.

A refreshingly honest and often humorous look at some believers’ outlandish behaviors helps bridge the communication gap between Christians and non-Christians, helping Christians share their beliefs more freely without judgmental attitudes, hypocrisy, and condemnation.

Documents the story of the author’s decision to pursue her husband’s ambition to become a minister after his tragic accidental death, an endeavor in which she eventually became a spiritual counselor for families with missing loved ones during search-and-rescue missions.

A comic original in the tradition of Tracey Ullman and Lily Tomlin, Hillary Carlip creates America’s most unforgettable grocery shoppers.

Zoey Redbird isn’t sure who is a friend or enemy at the House of Night, but she knows that any secrets that she discovers must be kept from the other residents, while she must also deal with the further complication of having three boyfriends.

Driven to solve the mystery of an older sibling’s disappearance ten years earlier, young lawyer Carolyn MacKenzie investigates a bizarre community of people who choose to disappear, embarking on a quest with life-threatening consequences.

Living with an old-world mother and rebellious sister, an urban New Jersey misfit dreams of becoming the next J. R. R. Tolkien and believes that a long-standing family curse is thwarting his efforts to find love and happiness.

The lives of two families living on the outskirts of Istanbul are changed by a massive earthquake that brings them together in a dangerous intimacy in which forbidden love blossoms between Irem, a Kurdish Muslim girl, and Dylan, a young American.

Cynical U.S. Marshal Page Murdock pursues a vicious gang into the far north of Canada during winter, running across a hostile colony of escaped slaves and a band of Sioux refugees along the way.

Recounts the author’s decision to change careers and attend the famed Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris, an education during which she survived the program’s intense teaching methods, competitive fellow students, and the dynamics of falling in love, in an account complemented by two dozen recipes.

Presented by the co-founder of the Johns Hopkins Civility Project, an eloquent guide to thoughtful behavior and common decency presents twenty-five rules for connecting successfully with others, revealing how to apply each rule to everyday life to make your life, as well as the lives of others, more comfortable and fulfilling.

Seventeen years after entering into a marriage agreement on her family’s behalf, Meg Powell is reunited with her first love, Carson McCay, a situation that complicates her attempts to repair her strained relationship with her daughter, Savannah.

Clane Hayward offers a compelling memoir of her peripatetic youth growing up on hippie communes throughout the western United States, her experiences with her bong-puffing, macrobiotic, Buddha-quoting mother and wild-haired, redneck father, and her love of school because it meant a hot lunch and clothes that matched.

Events in the life of Hemingway’s memorable character are presented chronologically in this arrangement of the famous stories.

From their first meeting on a New York City subway, the lives of two very different people — Sebastian, an adolescent growing up with a reclusive father, and Maria, a young single mother of two — are changed forever by their relationship.

A cardiologist offers an account of his internship and residency at a busy New York City hospital, detailing the brutal hours in a medical establishment that seems to place patients’ concerns last, as well as his own experiences on the other side as a patient himself.

Fifteen-year-old Scarlett Marvin is stuck in New York City for the summer working at her quirky family’s historic hotel, but her brother’s attractive new friend and a seasonal guest who offers her an intriguing and challenging writing project improve her outlook.

When a rivalry between a Mexican-hating white rancher and an equally prejudiced Mexican cattle baron escalates to deadly levels, young Texas Ranger Andy Pickard teams up with former Confederate soldier Farley Brackett to prevent a violent showdown.

Andy, a young Texas Ranger, joins forces with Farley, a Confederate soldier turned ranger, to deliver a prisoner to stand trial for murder, but the two lawmen soon find themselves in the middle of two warring families.

After his hippie grandmother ends up in the hospital, Cap Anderson is forced to leave the commune where he is homeschooled and attend Claverage Middle School, where his odd looks and behavior make him the target of bullies.

Sophomore Frankie starts dating senior Matthew Livingston, but when he refuses to talk about the all-male secret society that he and his friends belong to, Frankie infiltrates the society in order to enliven their mediocre pranks.

Izzy Spellman, a twenty-eight-year-old amalgamation of Nancy Drew and Bridget Jones, launches her career as a private investigator while working for the firm of her outlandishly dysfunctional family.

A follow-up to The Spellman Files finds Izzy struggling to retain her private investigator’s license after a pseudo engagement and her fourth arrest, a challenge that is further complicated by David’s marriage to Petra and Rae’s teenage angst.

A tale set against a backdrop of slave rights conflicts in the nineteenth-century Chesapeake Bay region finds young runaway Liz Spocott inadvertently inspiring a slave breakout from the attic prison of a notorious slave thief.

In a novel set in an indefinite, futuristic, post-apocalyptic world, a father and his young son make their way through the ruins of a devastated American landscape, struggling to survive and preserve the last remnants of their own humanity.

In 1951, the brutal murder of nineteen-year-old Marvin Cully transforms the town of Mayflower, Florida, into a battleground as violence erupts across the state and the NAACP joins in the efforts to uncover the killers.

Conducting research in southwest France, American graduate student Meredith Martin finds the old hotel where she is staying eerily familiar and experiences strange dreams about a sister and brother who visited the same region a century earlier.

A volume of craft projects draws on popular segments from “The Rosie O’Donnell Show” and “The View,” as well as the author’s web site Rosie.com, to provide step-by-step activities for families with children between the ages of five and twelve.

Reunited with his former Annapolis roommate, Andrew Stoddard — now president of the United States — when he is asked to become his personal physician, Gabe Singleton discovers that Andrew is going insane and that the condition may not be the result of natural causes.

The best-selling author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma cites the reasons why people have become so confused about their dietary choices, counseling readers on the importance of enjoyable moderate eating of mostly traditional plant foods.

Traces the author’s painful childhood in a series of foster homes, her deteriorating relationship with her emotionally unstable mother, abuse at the hands of a foster family, and her subsequent efforts to advocate for an improved foster care system.

Dismayed by developer plans to bulldoze a historic courthouse, Miss Julia launches a plan to expose the community’s eccentric characters in order to scare off investors, but her investigation is challenged by the disappearances of several of her friends’ husbands.

Fourteenth-century scholar and reformer John Wyclif is the subject and often persona of this collection of poems ranging from traditional to free verse and including some shaped like the objects they describe — an altar piece, the head of a pin.

Fourteen-year-old Henry, wishing to honor his brother Franklin’s dying wish, sets out to hike Maine’s Mount Katahdin with his best friend and dog, but fate adds another companion — the Cambodian refugee accused of fatally injuring Franklin.

Chronicles the fierce determination of individualist Morie Sawataishi to ensure the survival of the Akita species after all but sixteen dogs were slaughtered for the Japanese war effort, describing his radically unconventional lifestyle.

Delighted to be offered a permanent position with crusty Dr. O’Reilly, Dr. Barry Laverty confronts a crisis when his reputation is threatened by the unexpected death of one of his patients.

A veterinary surgeon offers his perspective on a typical day in his life, presenting anecdotes about pets and their owners and the unique blend of cutting-edge technology, old-fashioned instinct, and caring that comprise veterinary medicine today.

Captures the delicate balance of class and gender in contemporary India as witnessed through the lives of two women — Sera Dubash, an upper middle-class housewife, and Bhima, an illiterate domestic hardened by a life of loss and despair.

Undertaking a seemingly routine investigation into a potential land purchase, Maisie Dobbs arrives in rural Kent, only to be confronted by a number of mysterious fires, a series of petty crimes, village prejudice against outsiders, and other odd, potentially dangerous occurrences.