Alicia's Pick: One for the Money by Janet Evanovich. Stephanie Plum’s all grown up and out on her own, living five miles from Mom and Dad’s, doing her best to sever the world’s longest umbilical cord. Her mother is a meddler, and her grandmother is a few cans short of a case. Out of work and out of money, with her Miata repossessed and her refrigerator empty, Stephanie blackmails her bail bondsman cousin, Vinnie, into giving her a try as an apprehension agent. Stephanie knows zilch about the job requirements, but she figures her new pal, fearless bounty hunter Ranger, can teach her what it takes to catch a crook. Check Our Catalog
Angela's Pick: Daughters of the Stone by Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa. It is the mid-1800s. Fela, taken from Africa, is working at her second sugar plantation in colonial Puerto Rico. But Fela has a secret. Before she and her husband were separated and sold into slavery, they performed a tribal ceremony in which they poured the essence of their unborn child into a very special stone. Fela keeps the stone with her, waiting for the chance to finish what she started. When the plantation owner approaches her, Fela sees a better opportunity for her child, and allows the man to act out his desire. Such is the beginning of a line of daughters connected by their intense love for one another, and the stories of a lost land. Mati, a powerful healer and noted craftswoman, is grounded in a life that is disappearing in a quickly changing world. Concha, unsure of her place, doesn't realize the price she will pay for rejecting her past. Elena, modern and educated, tries to navigate between two cultures, moving to the United States, where she will struggle to keep her family together. Carisa turns to the past for wisdom and strength when her life in New York falls apart. The stone becomes meaningful to each of the women, pulling them through times of crisis and ultimately connecting them to one another. Check Our Catalog
Angelo's Pick: Promise Me by Harlan Coben. Myron Bolitar, former basketball star (Boston Celtics) turned sports and entertainment agent and occasional knight in shining armor, is back in fighting form in his action-packed eighth thriller. For the past six years Myron has been leading a quiet life, much of it at his parents' old house in Livingston, N.J. A new girlfriend, Ali Wilder, a 9/11 widow, is helping to bring him out of his shell. Concerned that Ali's teenage daughter, Erin, and Erin's friend, Aimee Biel, might fall in with the wrong crowd, Myron gives them his contact information in case either of them feels she needs help. Aimee later calls him in the middle of the night for a lift to a friend's house, on condition that her request remain a secret. When Aimee turns up missing in circumstances mirroring those surrounding another vanished girl, Bolitar himself becomes a suspect in her disappearance and must use his wits and martial arts skills to uncover the truth. Check Our Catalog
Aukse's Pick: Let's Pretend This Never Happened: (A Mostly True Memoir) by Jenny Lawson. A mostly funny, irreverent memoir on the foibles of growing up weird. In blogger Lawson's debut book, "The Bloggess" (thebloggess.com) relies entirely on her life stories to drive an unconventional narrative. While marketed as nonfiction, it's a genre distinction the author employs loosely (a point made clear in the book's subtitle). On the opening page she defends the subtitle, explaining, "The reason this memoir is only mostly true instead of totally true is that I relish not getting sued." Yet Lawson also relishes exaggerative storytelling, spinning yarns of her childhood and early adulthood that seem so unbelievable they could hardly be made up. Check Our Catalog
Jessica's Pick: Faking It by Jennifer Crusie. A raunchy, romantic comedy about art forgery, thievery, and all manner of con-artistry that's as hard to resist as one of Davy Dempsey's cons. Davy comes from a long line of scam artists. He arrives in Columbus, Ohio, to steal back his own money from ex-girl friend Clea, a charmer whose wealthy husbands tend to die under suspicious circumstances. Davy's plan is to go straight once he has the money, but old habits die hard. Check Our Catalog
Lill's Pick: My Nest Isn't Empty, It Just Has More Closet Space by Lisa Scottoline. New York Times bestselling author Lisa Scottoline struck a chord with readers, book clubs, and critics with her smash-hit essay collection, Why My Third Husband Will Be a Dog. This time, Lisa teams up with Daughter Francesca to give their mother-daughter perspective on everything from blind dates to empty calories, as well as life with the feistiest octogenarian on the planet, Mother Mary, who won’t part with her thirty-year-old bra. Three generations of women, triple the laughs—-and the love. Check Our Catalog
Lyn's Pick: Virals by Kathy Reichs. Tory Brennan, niece of acclaimed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan (of the Bones novels and hit TV show), is the leader of a ragtag band of teenage "sci-philes" who live on a secluded island off the coast of South Carolina. When the group rescues a dog caged for medical testing on a nearby island, they are exposed to an experimental strain of canine parvovirus that changes their lives forever. As the friends discover their heightened senses and animal-quick reflexes, they must combine their scientific curiosity with their newfound physical gifts to solve a cold-case murder that has suddenly become very hot--if they can stay alive long enough to catch the killer's scent.
Fortunately, they are now more than friends--they're a pack. They are Virals. Check Our Catalog
Mary's Pick: The Lion's Paw by Robb White. Sister and brother, Penny and Nick, live in an orphanage on Florida's east coast. The siblings, afraid they will be adopted and separated, run away. They meet an older boy, Ben, whose mother died in childbirth and whose father is missing in action in the South Pacific. Ben lives with Uncle Pete, who wants to sell dad's beloved sailboat. No way, Uncle Pete! After dark Ben sails the boat away and takes along Penny and Nick. The orphanage wants Nick and Penny back. Uncle Pete wants to find his nephew and the sailboat and offers a reward for their return. All manner of strangers, dangerous and mean like the bad preacher in Night of the Hunter, go hunting for the feral children. They endure storms and mosquitoes, snakes and alligators. It's The African Queen set in Florida — for kids. Check Our Catalog
Michelle's Pick: Size 12 is Not Fat by Meg Cabot. Heather Wells used to be a teen pop sensation...until her label dropped her for gaining a few extra pounds. Now Heather's walked out on her famous ex, moved in with his brother (but will things stay platonic with Cooper forever?), and found a job in a freshman dorm at New York College...who knew it was nicknamed Death Dorm? Check Our Catalog
Nicole's Pick: Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea by Chelsea Handler. In this hilarious, deliciously skewed collection, Chelsea mines her past for stories about her family, relationships, and career that are at once singular and ridiculous. Whether she's convincing her third-grade class that she has been tapped to play Goldie Hawn's daughter in the sequel to Private Benjamin, deciding to be more egalitarian by dating a redhead, or looking out for a foulmouthed, rum-swilling little person who looks just like her...only smaller, Chelsea has a knack for getting herself into the most outrageous situations. Check Our Catalog
Rita's Pick: The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise by Julia Stuart. Set in the popular tourist attraction in present-day London, The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise is an exquisite story of love, loss, and a one-hundred-eighty-one-year-old pet. Balthazar Jones has lived and worked in the Tower of London for the past eight years. Being a Beefeater is no easy job, and when Balthazar is tasked with setting up an elaborate menagerie of the many exotic animals gifted to the Queen, life at the Tower gets all the more interesting. Penguins escape, giraffes go missing, and the Komodo dragon sends innocent tourists running for their lives. Still, that chaos is nothing compared to what happens when his wife, Hebe, makes a surprise announcement. What’s a Beefeater to do? Check Our Catalog
Terri's Pick: The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd. What inspires the yearning for a soul mate? Few writers have explored, as Kidd does, the lush, unknown region of the feminine soul where the thin line between the spiritual and the erotic exists. The Mermaid Chair is a vividly imagined novel about the passions of the spirit and the ecstasies of the body; one that illuminates a woman’s self-awakening with the brilliance and power that only a writer of Kidd’s ability could conjure. Check Our Catalog
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