A Letter of Confession

In 1967, 43-year-old Wyatt Hillyer reveals What Is Left the Daughter when he writes his estranged daughter a letter, describing the troubling events that occurred 26 years earlier.  His parents simultaneously committed suicide over the same woman and Hillyer was sent to live with relatives in a small coastal community in Nova Scotia where,  as World War II drew increasingly close, otherwise decent citizens were driven to desperate acts.   Howard Norman’s exploration of a dark side of human nature has been praised for powerful storytelling and poetic writing.

A More Contemporary “Help”

Step into the glittering lives of Hollywood America, as scrubbed, wiped, and polished by immigrant women.  In My Hollywood by Mona Simpson, composer and new mother (Claire) hires a Filipina nanny (Lola) who is raising the money to send her youngest daughter through medical school.  The two women take turns telling their stories in sharply contrasting, but equally compelling voices.  Entertainment Weekly‘s reviewer raved “a character as rich as Lola won’t easily fade from anyone’s mind.”

Christmas 2010 Releases

THE BITE BEFORE CHRISTMAS
by Betts, Heidi
It’s beginning to look a lot like vampires– and vampire matchmaker Angelina is helping them to find that someone special to curl up with under the mistletoe!
X BETT

BUSY BODY
by Beaton, M. C.
When Mr. John Sunday, a self-important officer with the Health and Safety Board, is stabbed to death with a kitchen knife during the village’s Christmas festivities, Agatha’s detective agency is on the case.
M BEAT

CALL ME MRS. MIRACLE
by Macomber, Debbie
While working in the toy department of a family-run department store in New York City, Mrs. Miracle seizes the opportunity to connect Holly, who is searching for the perfect robot for her nephew, with Jake, the store owner’s son.
X MACO

A CHESAPEAKE SHORES CHRISTMAS
by Woods, Sherryl
Mick and Megan O’Brien finally make plans to walk down the aisle, but not everyone is happy about the upcoming wedding as they are. There’s a good chance complications will keep this reunited couple from ever saying “I do.”
X WOOD

CHRISTMAS AT HARRINGTON’S
by Carlson, Melody
Christmas is approaching, and Lea is penniless, friendless, and nearly hopeless. When a secondhand red coat lands her a job as Mrs. Santa at a department store, can she keep her past a secret, and find redemption and the true holiday spirit?
X CARL

CHRISTMAS EVE AT FRIDAY HARBOR
by Kleypas, Lisa
Mark Nolan’s happy-go-lucky bachelorhood is interrupted by the death of his sister and his subsequent guardianship of her six-year-old daughter, Holly, who is traumatized into muteness and desperately seeking a maternal figure. Enter Maggie Collins, a toy shop owner who lost her own husband to cancer.
X KLEY

THE CHRISTMAS JOURNEY
by VanLiere, Donna
A modern retelling of the Nativity Story, showing that the story is the Nativity is alive in our modern world and still touches the minds and hearts of people everywhere.
X VANL

CHRISTMAS MOURNING
by Maron, Margaret
North Carolina judge Deborah Knott and her husband Deputy Dwight Bryant are looking forward to Christmas until a traffic fatality turns out not to be an accident.
M MARO

A CHRISTMAS ODYSSEY
by Perry, Anne
Just before the Christmas holiday, distinguished London mathematician Henry Rathbone comes to the aid of an old friend whose son Lucien has gone missing. Enlisting the aid of Squeaky Robinson and Crow, Henry soon discovers that Lucien may be involved with a murdered prostitute and a major drugs dealer.
M PERR

CHRISTMAS WITH TUCKER
by Kincaid, Gregory D.
Twelve-year-old George McCray, who lives with his grandparents at their dairy farm, struggles with the loss of his father before finding hope and courage through a relationship with a loyal dog named Tucker.
X TUCK

GINGERBREAD COOKIE MURDER
by Fluke, Joanne
Hannah Swensen of the Cookie Jar in Lake Eden, Minn., discovers her neighbor’s head bashed in; Jaine Austen’s holiday stay at her parents’ home in the Tampa Vistas retirement community is enlivened by the murder of elderly lothario; and, Maine reporter Lucy Stone investigates a four-year-old boy’s disappearance. Includes recipes.
M FLUK

HOLIDAY MAGIC
by Michaels, Fern, et al
A collection of four Christmas romance stories includes Fern Michaels’ “Holiday Magic,” in which ski shop manager Stephanie Marshall gets an unexpected Christmas bonus in the form of her handsome boss, Eddie O’Brien.
SS HOLI

ON CHRISTMAS EVE : A CAPE LIGHT NOVEL
by Kinkade, Thomas
In Cape Light, a troubled marriage is healed by a runaway teenager, and a divorced woman finds happiness with a struggling magazine writer who dresses up as Santa Claus.
X KINK

A PLAIN & SIMPLE CHRISTMAS
by Clipston, Amy
Four years after leaving the Amish community to marry an outsider and live in Baltimore, Anna Mae McDonough, expecting her first child, returns with her husband at Christmas in hope of a reconciliation with the family that shunned her.
X CLIP

PROMISE ME
by Evans, Richard Paul
Beth Cardall’s life was falling apart: her six-year-old daughter, Charlotte, was suffering from an unidentifiable illness; her marriage transformed from a seemingly happy and loving relationship to one full of betrayal and pain; her job was increasingly at risk; and she had lost her ability to trust, to hope, or to believe in herself. Then, on Christmas day, Beth encountered Matthew.
X EVAN

SOMEWHERE ALONG THE WAY
by Thomas, Jodi
Ever since she claimed Harmony, Texas, as her home, eighteen-year-old Reagan Truman finds herself drawn to other who have made their way here. Shaped by the loneliness she’s known most of her life, Reagan has finally found a place she belongs-and doesn’t want anything to get in her way. But when her life is put in jeopardy and the whole town comes together to save her, she’ll discover that learning to trust the love that’s come into our hearts is the greatest gift of all.
X THOM

SANTA IN MONTANA
by Janet Dailey
Chase Calder is determined to make this harsh Montana Chrismtas the best ever for his daughter, Cat. It’s high time for widowed Cat to have a man in her life again and the secret Santa will bring joy to the whole clan. The Calders share a host of surprises this season including a mystery solved, a special visitor, and the greatest gift of all: the forever kind of love.
X DAIL

Domestic drama

Can we ever get enough of domestic dramas?  Not when they keep writing them this well…

Anna Quindlen.  Every Last One
Mary Beth Latham is first and foremost a mother, whose three teenaged children come first, before her career as a landscape gardener, or even her life as the wife of a doctor. When one of her sons, Max, becomes depressed, Mary Beth becomes focused on him, and is blindsided by a shocking act of violence.

Sue Miller.  The Lake Shore Limited
According to Bookmarks (Jul/Aug 2010), “Miller’s latest novel poses some compelling questions about relationships and the misguided assumptions and unreliable memories that underlie one’s sense of self – and it offers some profound if unsettling answers.”

A Descendant of Romeo and Juliet?

In Juliet, the debut novel by Anne Fortier, Julie Jacobs leaves for Italy per the instructions of her late aunt’s will, she never imagines that she’ll be thrust into a centuries-old feud, not to mention one of the most legendary romances of all time. However, as she uncovers the story of her ancester, Giulietta, whose love for a man named Romeo proved ill-fated, Julie finds herself increasingly under threat, and can’t help but feel that the past and present are very much connected.

Belfer returns with second historical novel

Lauren Belfer made a name for herself with her debut novel, City of Light, and now returns with A Fierce Radiance – a compelling, richly detailed, and absorbing tale of passion and intrigue set in New York City in the tumultuous early days of World War II. Sent to report on the doctors working with the new drug penicillin, Claire Shipley falls in love with physician James Stanton, but the suspicious death of James’ sister leads Claire to wonder if her estranged father, the head of a pharmaceutical company, is involved.

Defying genres

Is it historical fiction?  A spy thriller?  A horrifying murder mystery?  Mark Mills’ latest novel, The Information Officer, is a little of it all.  The story takes place when Axis forces start bombing Malta in May 1942.  The war provides cover for a British officer who might be a serial rapist and murderer.  Major Max Chadwick, the information officer in charge of controlling the island’s news faces a moral dilemma – should he conceal news of the killings or risk losing local support for the allies’ war effort?

Pulitzer shocker!

A debut novel, published by a small independent publisher, has won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Tinkers by Paul Harding is described by Publishers Weekly in a starred review as “an especially gorgeous example of novelistic craftsmanship.” The story opens with this line: “George Washington Crosby began to hallucinate eight days before he died.” Probably not a book for the casual reader but tailor-made for for those who enjoy exquisitely lush writing and character development.

30 Years in the Making

Karl Marlantes spent thirty years writing Matterhorn, a work of historical fiction depicting the truths of combat in Vietnam. Marlantes earned the Bronze Star, the Navy Cross and two Purple hearts for his service in Vietnam and the story that grew from his experiences is garnering rave reviews.

Matterhorn brings a long, torturous war back to life with realistic characters like Marine lieutenant and platoon commander Waino Mellas who is braving a 13-month tour in Quang-Tri province, forming friendships along the way.  Marlantes also writes authentic, thrilling combat sequences.

Publishers Weekly calls it “a grand, distinctive accomplishment”. BookPage reviewer Michael Lee hopes the size of the book (nearly 600 pages) doesn’t intimidate readers because “it is one of those rare books that will never leave their minds.”

Hope and Health Care

In his new novel, So Much for That, Lionel Shriver (author of We Need to Talk About Kevin) tackles health care in the United States and the devastating toll illness can take on a marriage.