3 Contemporary Novels, for Your Reading Pleasure

This week we bring to you three new contemporary novels. We hope you enjoy them. Stop in to your local branch today to pick up these and other new books.  Happy reading!

Gossip: a Novel By Beth Gutcheon, January 2012, 285 pages. 

The owner of a high-end dress shop on Manhattan's Upper East Side, Loviah "Lovie" Walker, to whom women from all walks of life turn to for advice, must find a way to bridge the chilly gulf between her two closest friends, which was the result of a perceived slight from decades ago that led to tragedy. An astute chronicler of everything that makes us human, the author delivers her most powerful and emotionally devastating novel to date. This book is a tale of intimacy and betrayal, trust and fidelity, friendship, competition, and motherhood that explores the myriad ways we use and abuse "information" about others—be it true, false, or imagined—to sustain, and occasionally destroy, one another.   Readers that enjoy novels with unforgettable characters like Olive Kitteridge and Cutting for Stone should give this title a chance.

In the Bag By Kate Klise, January 2012, 464 pages.

Successful children’s author and correspondent for People magazine debuts her first adult novel here. Told from the perspectives of two single parents and their teenage children, this fun novel, exploring the old-fashioned art of flirtation in the modern world, follows successful chef Daisy Sprinkle and the man whose son accidentally made off with her daughter's luggage during an international flight.  This new novel is a smart and stylish story that explores the old-fashioned art of romance in a modern world, where falling in love can be as risky as checking a bag on an international flight. Buckle your seat belt—it's going to be a bumpy vacation!

The Land of Decoration By Grace McCleen, March 2012, 308 pages.

If you enjoyed Emma Donoghue’s The Room, then check out this tale of 10 year old Judith who has been raised by her widowed father to believe that they are living in the end times.  To escape loneliness and the bullying that comes from standing out, Judith constructs her own model of the promised land made of scraps and scavenged items.  When she prays and makes it snow in her model world and a freak snow storm occurs the next day, Judith comes to believe she is God’s chosen instrument.  This debut novel is a gripping story which casts new light on how far an extraordinary young girl will go to protect the people she loves most.

Reviews brought to you each week by librarians Jennifer Niederhausen, Dona Stein andHeather Timko
, Adult Services Division
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