Adult

Benjamin and Bockarie are two longtime friends who return to their hometown of Imperi after the civil war in Sierra Leone. As more villagers begin coming back, they try to forge a new community by taking up their former posts as teachers, but they’re beset by such obstacles as a scarcity of food and a rash of murders, thievery, rape and retaliation. As Benjamin and Bockarie search for a way to restore order, they’re forced to reckon with the uncertainty of their past and future alike.

When a six-year battle with brain cancer ultimately stole his vision, memory, mobility and ability to continue teaching, David Menasche turned to Facebook with an audacious plan: a journey across America in hopes of seeing firsthand how his kids were faring in life. Had he made a difference? Within 48 hours of posting, former students in more than 50 cities replied with offers of support and shelter.

After graduating from Yale, William Baker, scion of an old line patrician family, goes to work in presidential politics. But when the campaign into which he has poured his heart ends in disappointment, he decides to leave New York behind, along with the devoted, ambitious and well-connected woman he’s been in love with for the last four years. Soon, however, he finds himself caught up in a whirlwind of unexpected friendships and romantic entanglements that threaten his safe plans.

Hetty “Handful” Grimke, an urban slave, yearns for life beyond the suffocating walls that enclose her within the wealthy Grimke household. On her 11th birthday, Sarah Grimke is given ownership of Handful. We follow their remarkable journeys over the next 35 years, as both strive for a life of their own, dramatically shaping each other’s destinies, and forming a complex relationship marked by guilt, defiance, estrangement and the uneasy ways of love.

Rosetta doesn't want her new husband Jeremiah to enlist as a soldier in the Civil War, but he joins up nonetheless, hoping to make enough money that they'll be able to afford their own farm someday. Determined to be with him, no matter the cost, Rosetta cuts off her hair, hems an old pair of his pants, and signs up as a Union soldier. Fearing discovery of her secret, Rosetta’s strong will clashes with Jeremiah’s as their marriage is tested by war.

THE POPE AND MUSSOLINI tells the story of two men who came to power in 1922, and together changed the course of 20th-century history. In most respects, they could not have been more different. One was scholarly and devout, the other thuggish and profane. Yet Pope Pius XI and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini had many things in common, and each relied on the other to consolidate his power and achieve his political goals.

The last thing Boston Detective D. D. Warren remembers is walking the crime scene after dark. She is later told she managed to discharge her weapon three times. All she knows is that she is seriously injured and unable to return to work. Six weeks later, a second woman is discovered murdered in her own bed, her room containing the same calling cards from the first. It soon becomes apparent that the killer isn’t just targeting lone women --- he is targeting D. D.

Pike Logan and Jennifer Cahill are in Turkmenistan with the Taskforce --- a top-secret antiterrorist unit that operates outside US law --- when Jennifer gets a call from her brother, Jack. Working on an investigative report into the Mexican drug cartels, Jack Cahill has unknowingly gotten caught between two rival groups. His desperate call to his sister is his last before he’s kidnapped. In their efforts to rescue Jack, Pike and Jennifer uncover a plot much more insidious than illegal drug trafficking.

Byron Hemmings wakes to a morning that looks like any other: his school uniform draped over his wooden desk chair, his sister arguing over the breakfast cereal, the click of his mother’s heels as she crosses the kitchen. But when the three of them leave home, the morning takes an unmistakable turn. In one terrible moment, something happens, something completely unexpected and at odds with life as Byron understands it. While his mother seems not to have noticed, 11-year-old Byron realizes that from now on nothing can be the same. Over the days and weeks that follow, Byron’s perfect world is shattered. Unable to trust his parents, he confides in his best friend, James, and together they concoct a plan.

Alma Katsu’s The Taker trilogy comes to a stunning conclusion, bringing Lanore McIlvrae to a final encounter with Adair, her powerful nemesis. Dismayed by Adair’s otherworldly powers and afraid of his passionate temper, Lanore has run from him across time, even imprisoning him behind a wall for two centuries to save Jonathan, her eternal love. But instead of punishing her for her betrayal, Adair declared his love for Lanore once more and set her free.