General Fiction
The latest installment in Mario Giordano's best-selling series of charming mysteries, starring Sicily's most glamorous gumshoe, Auntie Poldi ("Long may she reign." *)
*Kirkus Reviews, starred review
All the beloved, irascible Auntie Poldi wanted from her Sicilian retirement was time to enjoy the sunshine, a free-flowing supply of wine, and a sultry romance with Chief Inspector Vito Montana. But then her idyll is rudely disrupted by the last person she wants to see on her doorstep: John Owenya, detective inspector with the Tanzanian Ministry of Home Affairs, who is also her estranged lying cheat of a husband.
Not only is John's sudden reappearance putting a kink in Poldi's dreamy love affair with Montana, but his presence also comes with a plea for help--and unwanted clashes with the Mafia.
Where is John's half-brother? What is the ten-million-dollar "it" that John's brother was last seen with, which has both the Sicilian and the Tanzanian mobs in a frenzy? With only a postcard that has a phone number and a name, "Handsome Antonio," on the back, Auntie Poldi hops begrudgingly (albeit with a great deal of gumption and panache) back into the saddle (in this case, an immaculate red Maserati Cabrio from the eighties with cream leather upholstery). The faster she finds Handsome Antonio, the sooner she can get John Owenya out of her hair and her love life. But the people Poldi discovers along the way may very well knock her immaculate wig askew.
Sandy: Auntie Poldi kills me. I picked this book because so many of you are mad for the European woman turns sleuth “detective” series, plus it reminded me of a Peter Mayle caper (A Year in Provence, etc.). Each one of her books is more beloved then the one before - and who can resist Poldi’s verve and full-steam-ahead joie de vivre? While she solves a murder in her new hometown of Sicily, she supports her writer’s-block nephew and, sexy at 60, forges a madcap life of her own. Full of quirky characters, “scorching days and velvety nights,” this is escapism at its funnest.
When Isolde Oberreiter decides at age 60 to move from Munich to Sicily “to drink herself comfortably to death with a sea view,” her decision makes a crazy kind of sense. Winters in Munich are not for the faint of heart. Her ex-husband, Peppe, now deceased, was from Catania, and his three sisters, Luisa, Teresa, and Caterina, welcome her to join them there. But Isolde, known to her family as Poldi, always flies to her own compass. Instead of Catania, she buys a villa in tiny Torre Archirafi, down the street from the Bar-Gelateria Cocuzza . Because even intrepid Poldi can’t manage a villa on her own, she recruits Valentino Candela, a young local (and dashing) jack-of-all-trades, to help with the restoration. Valentino is a great worker until he disappears. Suspecting foul play, Poldi invades Femminamorta, a local estate Valentino mentioned just before vanishing. Valérie Raisi di Belfiore, the estate’s young owner, takes to Poldi, inviting her to dinner with her elderly cousin, Domenico Pastorella di Belfiore, owner of a still larger estate. Charmed as she is by Sicilian high society, Poldi isn’t getting any closer to finding Valentino. And she isn’t finding people with whom she really clicks—that is, until she crosses paths with police detective Vito Montana. Poldi is an irresistible newcomer with a mature voice and a vision of who she is and who she never will be, not afraid to take chances, and willing to fail. She's grateful to the universe for what it offers and accepting when it doesn't provide more. A drama queen who isn't fooled by her own production, she knows the value of living deeply.
Giordano’s wit and his formidable heroine's wisdom combine to make this debut a smash.
In the spirit of Bridget Jones's Diary, Marie-Renée Lavoie's Autopsy of a Boring Wife tells the hysterically funny and ultimately touching tale of forty-eight-year-old Diane, a woman whose husband leaves her and is having an affair because, he says, she bores him. Diane takes the charge to heart and undertakes an often ribald, highly entertaining journey to restoring trust in herself and others that is at the same time an astute commentary on women and girls, gender differences, and the curious institution of marriage in the twenty-first century. All the details are up for scrutiny in this tender, brisk story of the path to recovery. Autopsy of a Boring Wife is a wonderfully fresh and engaging novel of the pitfalls and missteps of an apparently "boring" life that could be any of ours.
"This seems to me a higher order of feminism than repeating the story of woman as victim... Kate Chopin gives her female protagonist the central role, normally reserved for Man, in a meditation on identity and culture, consciousness and art." -- From the introduction by Marilynne Robinson.
The Bad Muslim Discount is an irreverent, poignant, and often hysterically funny debut novel by an amazing new voice. With deep insight, warmth, and an irreverent sense of humor, Syed M. Masood examines universal questions of identity, faith (or lack thereof), and belonging through the lens of Muslim Americans.
A crackling portrayal of everyday American heroines...A triumph.
-- Fiona Davis, New York Times bestselling author of The Lions of Fifth Avenue
A group of young women from Smith College risk their lives in France at the height of World War I in this sweeping novel based on a true story--a skillful blend of Call the Midwife and The Alice Network--from New York Times bestselling author Lauren Willig.
A scholarship girl from Brooklyn, Kate Moran thought she found a place among Smith's Mayflower descendants, only to have her illusions dashed the summer after graduation. When charismatic alumna Betsy Rutherford delivers a rousing speech at the Smith College Club in April of 1917, looking for volunteers to help French civilians decimated by the German war machine, Kate is too busy earning her living to even think of taking up the call. But when her former best friend Emmeline Van Alden reaches out and begs her to take the place of a girl who had to drop out, Kate reluctantly agrees to join the new Smith College Relief Unit.
Four months later, Kate and seventeen other Smithies, including two trailblazing female doctors, set sail for France. The volunteers are armed with money, supplies, and good intentions--all of which immediately go astray. The chateau that was to be their headquarters is a half-burnt ruin. The villagers they meet are in desperate straits: women and children huddling in damp cellars, their crops destroyed and their wells poisoned.
Despite constant shelling from the Germans, French bureaucracy, and the threat of being ousted by the British army, the Smith volunteers bring welcome aid--and hope--to the region. But can they survive their own differences? As they cope with the hardships and terrors of the war, Kate and her colleagues find themselves navigating old rivalries and new betrayals which threaten the very existence of the Unit.
With the Germans threatening to break through the lines, can the Smith Unit pull together and be truly a band of sisters?
A Washington Post Best Book of the Year & a New York Times Notable Book From the Pulitzer Prize---winning author of The Shipping News and "Brokeback Mountain," comes the New York Times bestselling epic about the demise of the world's forests: "Barkskins is grand entertainment in the tradition of Dickens and Tolstoy...the crowning achievement of Annie Proulx's distinguished career, but also perhaps the greatest environmental novel ever written" (San Francisco Chronicle). In the late seventeenth century two young Frenchmen, René Sel and Charles Duquet, arrive in New France. Bound to a feudal lord for three years in exchange for land, they become wood-cutters--barkskins. René suffers extraordinary hardship, oppressed by the forest he is charged with clearing. He is forced to marry a native woman and their descendants live trapped between two cultures. But Duquet runs away, becomes a fur trader, then sets up a timber business. Annie Proulx tells the stories of the descendants of Sel and Duquet over three hundred years--their travels across North America, to Europe, China, and New Zealand--the revenge of rivals, accidents, pestilence, Indian attacks, and cultural annihilation. Over and over, they seize what they can of a presumed infinite resource, leaving the modern-day characters face to face with possible ecological collapse. "A stunning, bracing, full-tilt ride through three hundred years of US and Canadian history...with the type of full-immersion plot that keeps you curled in your chair, reluctant to stop reading" (Elle), Barkskins showcases Proulx's inimitable genius of creating characters who are so vivid that we follow them with fierce attention. "This is Proulx at the height of her powers as an irreplaceable American voice" (Entertainment Weekly, Grade A), and Barkskins "is an awesome monument of a book" (The Washington Post)--"the masterpiece she was meant to write" (The Boston Globe). As Anthony Doerr says, "This magnificent novel possesses the dark humor of The Shipping News and the social awareness of 'Brokeback Mountain.'"
AN AMERICAN BOOKSELLERS ASSOCIATION ADULT DEBUT HONOR BOOK
WINNER OF THE AUDIE AWARD FOR BEST FEMALE NARRATOR
LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER
A sparkling talent makes her fiction debut with this infectious novel that combines the charming pluck of Eloise, the poignant psychological quirks of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and the page-turning spirit of Where'd You Go, Bernadette.
Reclusive literary legend M. M. "Mimi" Banning has been holed up in her Bel Air mansion for years. But after falling prey to a Bernie Madoff-style ponzi scheme, she's flat broke. Now Mimi must write a new book for the first time in decades, and to ensure the timely delivery of her manuscript, her New York publisher sends an assistant to monitor her progress. The prickly Mimi reluctantly complies--with a few stipulations: No Ivy-Leaguers or English majors. Must drive, cook, tidy. Computer whiz. Good with kids. Quiet, discreet, sane.
When Alice Whitley arrives at the Banning mansion, she's put to work right away--as a full-time companion to Frank, the writer's eccentric nine-year-old, a boy with the wit of Noel Coward, the wardrobe of a 1930s movie star, and very little in common with his fellow fourth-graders.
As she slowly gets to know Frank, Alice becomes consumed with finding out who Frank's father is, how his gorgeous "piano teacher and itinerant male role model" Xander fits into the Banning family equation--and whether Mimi will ever finish that book.
Full of heart and countless "only-in-Hollywood" moments, Be Frank with Me is a captivating and unconventional story of an unusual mother and son, and the intrepid young woman who finds herself irresistibly pulled into their unforgettable world.
Carrie: Here is the job description Alice Whitely fills: “No Ivy Leaguers or English majors. Must drive, cook, tidy. Computer whiz. Good with kids.* Quiet, discreet, sane.”
*The kid here is Frank, the 9-year-old son of reclusive, eccentric author M.M. (Mimi) Banning who has decided to write again after 20 years of ‘silence.’ Since Alice is sent to CA by her publisher boss, she thinks she will be a writing assistant to digitize Mimi’s work, but really she becomes the de facto nanny for Frank who is a full-time-plus job. More than once Alice decides to jump ship and return to NY, but she is so smitten with oddball Frank, that this relationship overcomes Mimi’s hostility, the absurd hours and working conditions and occasional danger to Alice’s life. Plus there is the enigma - who is Frank’s father? And a good-looking handy-man/piano teacher doesn’t hurt either. Who saves whom? is the ultimate question in this sweet, funny, madcap debut.
Carrie: I am not a fan of “fluff” - there are so many books waiting that I hate to ‘waste’ a read on something that doesn’t enrich, inform, or entertain on more than a surface level. So I approached this with a little trepidation and gave myself a ‘vacation’ book for summer - this was actually an audio choice for walking and long distance driving. I was so pleasantly surprised that I have to talk it up! What elevates this book is the witty dialogue between the main character, romance writer, January Andrews and her arch-nemesis (and summer next-door neighbor) serious, literary writer, Augustus Everett. Totally the fluff read set-up, but so many twists that don’t let it go there. January has come to a lake house to sort out life after her father’s death. Gus has secluded himself there for years, licking wounds and trying to write his next award-winner. Since they have a past, there is instant tension, which later turns romantic, but they challenge each other out of their writing slumps by each having to write a story in the other’s genre and planning outings (c’mon, dates!) for “research” in each other’s fields. Sweet, funny, savvy, and a bit of a genre send-up. I was glad I indulged!
Sandy: Me, I LOVE fluff. I do. I have at least a couple fluffies somewhere in my pile … always. I think of them as bubble baths waiting for me when I’ve finished a bracing, more demanding read. Sometimes I scan my upbringing for clues on why my well-educated heart thrums warm and happy when I settle into a simply pleasing read, even those with predictable endings. To the extent I can (or want) to trace it I think I love fluff because I was raised with Frank Capra movies, Family Classics (with Frazier Thomas, remember “Sink the Bismarck?”) and TV shows like Columbo where stuff’s all well-settled in the end and there’s someone to root for. I do confess it, I even watched my sister and her friends play the board game “Mystery Date” and can 100% recall Bert Parks singing “There she is, Miss America ...” while my mom and I rooted for our favorite. How hilarious!!
Can you imagine my 22 year-old righteous daughter EMMA enduring all that!? Sorry, Emma, but go ahead and put ‘em up -- I do enjoy racing through fun plotty capers with a smatter of witty dialogue (preferably taking place within tasteful interiors), assuming the author is respectful and tasteful too. In the last few months I’ve let my fluff ratio swell a smidge, I think.
Sometimes one needs a fizzy tonic when one is trying to save one’s business amidst a pandemic and one’s 20-something children all move back home and take the last yogurt but leave in the fridge the multi-box it came in. Grrrrr. Fizzy tonic. Bubble bath. But I digress - what you want to know is that you should read Beach Read because it’s much more than its silly splashy summery cover. The characters Carrie W mentioned above, Gus and January, are going through some things (writer’s block plagues each and personal grapplings like January’s dad’s big secret and Gus’s jerky ex aren’t helping). Emily Henry’s writing is insightful and heart-felt and the issues our heroes face are realistically and sensitively resolved. No need to read this on the beach - it stands up smartly any time of year. Well done, Ms. Henry.