Adult

Wherever humans have gone in the New World, dogs have been their companions, from the time people crossed the Bering Land Bridge some 20,000 years ago. In this revelatory history, Mark Derr looks at the ways in which we have used canines --- as sled dogs and sheepdogs, hounds and Seeing Eye dogs, guard dogs, show dogs and bomb-sniffing dogs --- as he tracks fascinating changes in American culture and society through the eyes of humanity's best friend.

Aside from Superman and Batman, no superhero has lasted as long or commanded so vast and wildly passionate a following as Wonder Woman. Like every other superhero, Wonder Woman has a secret identity. Unlike every other superhero, she also has a secret history. Harvard historian and New Yorker staff writer Jill Lepore has uncovered an astonishing trove of documents, including the never-before-seen private papers of William Moulton Marston, Wonder Woman’s creator.

The vampire world is in crisis. Vampires have been proliferating out of control, and old vampires are doing the bidding of a Voice commanding that they indiscriminately burn vampire-mavericks in cities from Paris and Mumbai to Hong Kong, Kyoto and San Francisco. The worlds and beings of all the Vampire Chronicles come together to ultimately rise up and seek out who or what the Voice is, and to discover the secret of what it desires and why.

Years after her grandfather’s death, journalist Sarah Wildman stumbled upon a cache of his letters. One woman’s letters stood out: those from Valy, her grandfather’s lover who had remained behind when he fled Europe six months after the Nazis annexed Austria. Obsessed with Valy’s story, Wildman began a quest that lasted years and spanned continents. She discovered, to her shock, an entire world of other people searching for the same woman.

From the beginning, Maeve Binchy’s writings reflected the warmth, wit and keen human interest that readers would come to love in her fiction. From the royal wedding to boring airplane companions, Samuel Beckett to Margaret Thatcher, "senior moments" to life as a waitress, MAEVE’S TIMES gives us wonderful insight into a changing Ireland as it celebrates the work of one of our best-loved writers.

Because so few of us now serve in the military, our men and women in uniform have become strangers to us. We stand up at athletic events to honor them, but we hardly know their true measure. Here, Starbucks CEO and longtime veterans’ advocate Howard Schultz and National Book Award finalist Rajiv Chandrasekaran of The Washington Post offer an enlightening, inspiring corrective.

Dr. Kay Scarpetta finds herself in the unsettling pursuit of a serial sniper who leaves no incriminating evidence except fragments of copper. The victims appear to have had nothing in common, and there is no pattern to indicate where the killer will strike next. When Scarpetta investigates a shipwreck, looking for answers that only she can discover and analyze, she comes face to face with shocking evidence that implicates her techno genius niece, Lucy, her own flesh and blood.

On the 50th anniversary of Winston Churchill’s death, Boris Johnson celebrates the singular brilliance of one of the most important leaders of the 20th century. Taking on the myths and misconceptions along with the outsized reality, he portrays --- with characteristic wit and passion --- a man of contagious bravery, breathtaking eloquence, matchless strategizing and deep humanity.

Spain, 1748. Caridad is a recently freed Cuban slave wandering the streets of Seville. Her master is dead and she has nowhere to go. When, by chance, she meets Milagros Carmona --- a spellbinding, rebellious gypsy --- the two women become inseparable. Caridad is swept into an exotic fringe society full of romance and art, passion and dancing. But their way of life changes instantly when gypsies are declared outlaws by royal mandate and their world as a free people becomes perilous.

The dark history of Spring House, a beautifully restored plantation mansion, has long been forgotten. But something sinister lurks beneath the soil of the old estate. After heiress and current owner Caitlin Chaisson is witness to her husband’s stunning betrayal at her birthday party, she tries to take her own life in the mansion’s cherished gazebo. Instead, the blood she spills awakens dark forces in the ground below. Chaos ensues, and by morning her husband has vanished without a trace and his mistress has gone mad.