A Murder is Announced by Agatha Christie, 275 pages

 "A Murder is Announced" is a staple of crime fiction and often considered as the best Miss Marple novel. The villagers of Chipping Cleghorn, including Jane Marple who is staying nearby, are agog with curiosity over an advertisement in the local gazette which reads: ‘A murder is announced and will take place on Friday October 29th, at Little Paddocks at 6.30 p.m.’ Is this a childish practical joke? Or a hoax intended to scare poor Letitia Blacklock? Unable to resist the mysterious invitation, a crowd gathers at Little Paddocks at the appointed time when, without warning, the lights go out…

The Something Girl by Jodi Taylor, 275 pages

 The Nothing Girl has grown up…

It’s life as usual at Frogmorton Farm – which is to say that events have passed the merely eccentric and are now galloping headlong towards the completely bizarre.

Once again Jenny struggles to stay afloat in the stormy seas of matrimony with her husband, Russell Checkland, together with an unlikely mix of Patagonian Attack Chickens, Jack the Sad Donkey, and Mrs Crisp’s mysterious boyfriend. The old favourites are still around, of course. There’s Marilyn the Omnivorous Donkey, Russell’s ex-girlfriend Don’t Call Me Franny, and the neurotic Boxer, currently failing to deal with butterfly trauma.

So nothing much is new … except for the mysterious figure dogging Jenny’s steps and who, if she didn’t know better, she would swear was her sinister cousin Christopher, last seen being hurled from the house by her wayward husband. He couldn’t possibly be stupid enough to come back and try again … Could he?

Excuse Me While I Slip Into Someone More Comfortable by Eric Poole, 275 pages

 In 1977, Eric Poole is a talented high school trumpet player with one working ear, the height-to-weight ratio of a hat rack, a series of annoyingly handsome bullies, and a mother irrationally devoted to Lemon Pledge. But who he wants to be is a star…ANY star. With equal parts imagination, flair, and delusion, Eric proceeds to emulate a series of his favorite celebrities, like Barry Manilow, Halston, Tommy Tune, and Shirley MacLaine, in an effort to become the man he’s meant to be—that is, anyone but himself.

As he moves through his late teens and early twenties in suburban St. Louis, he casts about for an appropriate outlet for his talents. Will he be a trumpet soloist? A triple-threat actor/singer/dancer? A fashion designer in gritty New York City?

Striving to become the son who can finally make his parents proud, Eric begins to suspect that discovering his personal and creative identities can only be accomplished by admitting who he really is. Picking up at the end of his first acclaimed memoir, Where’s My Wand?, Poole’s journey from self-delusion to acceptance is simultaneously hysterical, heartfelt, and inspiring.

Murder at Mabel's Motel by G. A. McKevett, 275 pages

 Stella “Granny” Reid’s youth wasn’t the only thing changed by time in tiny, nondescript McGill, Georgia. Except even back in the 1980s, the Southern town still had a way of attracting downright dubious characters—some with a talent for murder.

As quirky as McGill’s residents can be, they usually welcome society’s oddballs and outcasts into the community with open arms. But the three members of the Lone White Wolf Pack are a different story. Townsfolk aren’t feeling the least bit neighborly toward the ignorant gang widely believed to have orchestrated several hate crimes in the area . . .

When the small group’s irredeemable leader, Billy Ray Sonner, is found dead in an abandoned motel, most assume it was the result of an accidental overdose. An unfortunate yet predictable end for a man who lived the way Billy did. Only Stella and the sheriff have witnessed the crime scene in person, and the smell of cyanide means something more disturbing happened in that ramshackle room. Something like homicide . . .

While Stella wades through a flood of suspects, uncovered secrets link both Billy’s closest allies and respected locals to the incident. One thing is certain—this wasn’t an impulsive act of revenge. There’s a sophisticated killer on the loose, and Stella must expose deep-rooted fears and dark pasts if she wants to crack a carefully planned murder and stop McGill from descending into chaos.

Pinky Pye by Eleanor Estes, 275 pages

Meet Pinky, a furious black kitten who adopts the Pye family.
     The Pyes have some of the smartest pets around—there’s Ginger the intellectual dog, and Gracie the clever old cat—but Pinky is more than smart enough to earn a place in the Pye’s hearts. She can box with Ginger, play games with Mr. Pye, and—Rachel and Jerry can hardly believe their eyes—even type out her life story!

Miss Clare Remembers by Miss Read, 275 pages

For her new book, "Miss Read" has returned to Fairacre. In it she tells the story of Miss Clare's long life, most of it spent in teaching at the Fairacre school. Miss Clare looks back across six reigns and two world wars, in one of which she lost her lover. She surveys a quiet life which, for all its outward serenity, has much personal drama. Her rural lifetime spanned a social revolution in the countryside.

We meet some old Fairacre friends as well as Dolly Clare's family -- Francis, her sturdy father , Mary, her valiant mother, and Ada, the flighty sister who everyone predicted would come to no good -- as well as the variety of original personalities to be found in a village like Beech Green.

Ungovernable: The Victorian Parent's Guide to Raising Flawless Children by Therese Oneill, 275 pages

Feminist historian Therese Oneill is back, to educate you on what to expect when you're expecting . . . a Victorian baby! In Ungovernable, Oneill conducts an unforgettable tour through the backwards, pseudoscientific, downright bizarre parenting fashions of the Victorians, advising us on:

- How to be sure you're not too ugly, sickly, or stupid to breed
- What positions and room decor will help you conceive a son
- How much beer, wine, cyanide and heroin to consume while pregnant
- How to select the best peasant teat for your child
- Which foods won't turn your children into sexual deviants
- And so much more


Endlessly surprising, wickedly funny, and filled with juicy historical tidbits and images, Ungovernable provides much-needed perspective on -- and comic relief from -- the age-old struggle to bring up baby.

F My Life by Maxime Valette, Guillaume Passaglia, and Didier Guedj, 275 pages

Today, my boss fired me via text message. I don’t have a text messaging plan. I paid 25 cents to get fired.

Your girlfriend dumped you, your car broke down, your boss passed you up for the big promotion. Life’s not fair, but there is one sure-fire way to ease your pain–laughing at someone else who had an even worse day than you did.

Enter the devastatingly funny world of F My Life, where calamity is comedy. Covering every disastrous pratfall in love, work, family-life, and more, F My Life proffers other people’s ruinous, real-life happenings to brighten your gloomiest day: someone getting dumped through a greeting card, ignored at their birthday party, or insulted by their own grandmother. Spanning everything from ironic twists of fate to down-right shameful moments, F My Life’s squirm-inducing stories are schadenfreude at its finest. So today, take solace in knowing that at least you’re not that guy. There now, don’t you feel better?

Today, my boyfriend broke up with me. I cried and told him that I loved him. He gave me a quarter and told me to call someone who cared. I threw the quarter in his face and ran. I waited for the bus, but when I got on, I realized I was 25 cents short of the fare. I walked home in the rain.

Today, my mom walked in on me looking at a 1978 Playboy. She asked if I found it in the basement. I said yes. Then I realized she was the centerfold.

Today, I got in line at the grocery store. The woman in front of me looked right at me, turned to her friend, and said “That reminds me, I forgot to get acne cream.”

At The Wolf's Table by Rosella Postorino, 275 pages

"They called it the Wolfsschanze, the Wolf's Lair. 'Wolf' was his nickname. As hapless as Little Red Riding Hood, I had ended up in his belly. A legion of hunters was out looking for him, and to get him in their grips they would gladly slay me as well."

Germany, 1943: Twenty-six-year-old Rosa Sauer's parents are gone, and her husband Gregor is far away, fighting on the front lines of WWII. Impoverished and alone, she makes the fateful decision to leave war-torn Berlin to live with her in-laws in the countryside, thinking she'll find refuge there. But one morning, the SS come to tell her she has been conscripted to be one of Hitler's tasters: three times a day, she and nine other women go to his secret headquarters, the Wolf's Lair, to eat his meals before he does. Forced to eat what might kill them, the tasters begin to divide into The Fanatics, those loyal to Hitler, and the women like Rosa who insist they aren't Nazis, even as they risk their lives every day for Hitler's.

As secrets and resentments grow, this unlikely sisterhood reaches its own dramatic climax. What's more, one of Rosa's SS guards has become dangerously familiar, and the war is worsening outside. As the months pass, it becomes increasingly clear that Rosa and everyone she knows are on the wrong side of history.

Too Big To Die by Sue Ann Jaffarian, 275 pages

Viral videos and dangerous criminals turn Odelia and Greg's good deed into accusations of murder 

It's the dog days of summer for Odelia and Greg after they rescue a dog from a closed car on a blistering hot day. The culprit is former reality star Marla Kingston, who's married to a client of Odelia's law firm. The dog was saved, but Odelia's job might not be when Kingston demands blood. Things get even stickier when a video of the rescue goes viral, and the man who helped them winds up dead. And who is the mysterious young woman who shows up about the same time? Is she connected or just an opportunist looking to cash in on their reluctant Internet fame?

Turn Around Bright Eyes by Rob Sheffield, 275 pages

Turn Around Bright Eyes picks up Sheffield's story right after Love Is a Mix Tape. He is a young widower devastated by grief, trying to build a new life in a new town after his wife's death. As a writer for Rolling Stone, he naturally takes solace in mu

sic. But that's when he discovers the sublime ridiculousness of karaoke, and despite the fact that he can't carry a tune, he begins to find his voice. His karaoke obsession takes him to some strange places, whether that means singing a Frank Sinatra song in a senior-citizen community in Florida, attempting a Merle Haggard classic at a cowboy saloon in the Mojave desert, or clearing the room at an after-hours dive in Chinatown. But he finds the music leads him to the most surprising place of all--a new life and a new love.

Turn Around Bright Eyes is a story about finding the courage to start over, move on, and rock the mike. It's about falling in love and navigating your way through adult romance. It's about how you can learn the weirdest things about yourself just by butchering a Hall & Oates song at 2 A.M. under fluorescent lights in a room full of strangers. It's about how songs get tangled up in our deepest emotions, evoking memories of the past while inspiring hope for the future. But most of all, it's a book about all the strange ways music brings people together.

The Stupidest Angel by Christopher Moore, 275 pages

'Twas the night (okay, more like the week) before Christmas, and all through the tiny community of Pine Cove, California, people are busy buying, wrapping, packing, and generally getting into the holiday spirit.

But not everybody is feeling the joy. Little Joshua Barker is in desperate need of a holiday miracle. No, he's not on his deathbed; no, his dog hasn't run away from home. But Josh is sure that he saw Santa take a shovel to the head, and now the seven-year-old has only one prayer: Please, Santa, come back from the dead.

But hold on! There's an angel waiting in the wings. (Wings, get it?) It's none other than the Archangel Raziel come to Earth seeking a small child with a wish that needs granting. Unfortunately, our angel's not sporting the brightest halo in the bunch, and before you can say "Kris Kringle," he's botched his sacred mission and sent the residents of Pine Cove headlong into Christmas chaos, culminating in the most hilarious and horrifying holiday party the town has ever seen.

Move over, Charles Dickens—it's Christopher Moore time.

Hitler's Forgotten Children by Ingrid Von Oelhafen & Tim Tate, 275 pages

The story of Hitler's program of taking German looking children from conquered territories and Germanizing them as told by one woman's experience of trying to figure out who she really was. A very dark period of history.

Presumed Puzzled by Parnell Hall, 275 pages

Someone is murdered yet again, and the Puzzle Lady is in the middle. I have to say I'm amazed at how fast they go to trial in this town.

pitch perfect by Mickey Rapkin, 275 pages

I hadn't realized that the movie was based on a book. This was a nonfiction look at a cappella groups on college campuses. While it was informative, the movie was a lot more fun. The book needed Fat Amy.

Timmy Failure: Now Look What You've Done by Stephan Pastis, 275 pages

Stephan Pastis is the creator of Pearls Before Swine which means I'll read anything he writes. Not your normal juvenile fiction, but lots of fun and slightly twisted.

GI Brides by Duncan Barrett, 275 pages

I love anything history based, especially if it has an English bent. This was a perfect fit that was really well done. It was interesting to read about the English girls who fell for American soldiers and their lives after coming to America as war brides. I hadn't realized there was such a backlash against the women at the time. While many didn't have a happily ever after, I was glad the author showed some that did. A great fit for history buffs.

Small as an Elephant by Jennifer Richard Jacobson, 275 pages

Jeana had reviewed this book and made it sound sweet and touching so I had to pick it up. Halfway through I went to Jeana and told her the book should have come with a warning label and some kleenex because it made me want to cry repeatedly. The ending was a good wrap up without being too sappy.