Adult

An aborted coup in the People's Republic of China has left President Wei Zhen Lin with no choice but to agree with the expansionist policies of General Su Ke Qiang. They have declared the South China Sea a protectorate and are planning an invasion of Taiwan. Jack Ryan’s administration is determined to thwart China’s ambitions, but the stakes are dangerously high as a new breed of powerful Chinese anti-ship missile endangers the US Navy's plans to protect the island.

Kit Brennan has always been the most grounded of her sisters. A Catholic school English teacher for 17 years, Kit's decisions have always been sound --- but not too satisfying. When a girls' weekend away gives Kit a much-needed reprieve, she meets a dangerous man who challenges everything she thought she was --- or should be. Now Kit must decide: will she finally let her desires take flight, or will she continue to be the good daughter?

Lieutenant Luke Pittman lies in the hospital in a coma after being attacked by one of their own. Veronica Manes, Burning Lake’s most respected modern-day witch, is dead, her murder left unsolved. Natalie Lockhart has become embroiled in a case with threads that become increasingly difficult to untangle. Now, a new horror is uncovered, one that shocks the town as never before, and the dark, shadowy path forward for Natalie is paved with challenges that haunt her past. Natalie’s obsession with finding the truth leads to a twisted, elemental struggle between good and evil --- and nothing will ever be the same again.

Julian Barnes’s follow-up to THE SENSE OF AN ENDING, last year’s Man Booker winner, is this collection of 17 essays and one short story --- all of them previously printed over the past 15 years --- about writers and the art of writing. His ruminations on writers as diverse as Penelope Fitzgerald, Michel Houellebecq and Joyce Carol Oates are as incisive as one expects from the keen intellect that gave us FLAUBERT’S PARROT.

In a race against time, Rogue special-operations agent Blaine McCracken and his longtime partner in crime-fighting, Johnny Wareagle, pursue the source of the most ancient and terrifying weapon the world has yet encountered: dark matter. But a wealthy magnate and a doomsday cult leader are also seeking this weapon, each for their own nefarious reasons. McCracken and Wareagle find themselves confronting an unbelievable reality at the source of their quest.

Once a city of enormous wealth and culture, Prague was home to emperors, alchemists, astronomers and, as it’s whispered, hell portals. When music student Sarah Weston lands a summer job at Prague Castle cataloging Beethoven’s manuscripts, she has no idea how dangerous her life is about to become.

FLY AWAY is the story of three women who have lost their way and need each other --- plus a miracle --- to transform their lives. An emotionally complex, heart-wrenching novel about love, motherhood, loss and new beginnings, this long-awaited follow-up to FIREFLY LANE reminds us that where there is life, there is hope, and where there is love, there is forgiveness.

Margaret Kennedy lives on a dairy farm in rural Maine. Her husband Thomas --- injured in a war overseas --- will never be the man he was. When the President signs a bill in support of wounded veterans, Margaret is invited to the nation’s capital. Charlie King, a handsome Foreign Service officer, volunteers to escort her. As the rhododendron blossoms along the Blue Ridge Highway, the unlikely pair fall in love --- but Margaret cannot ignore the tug of her marriage vows.

Go back in time to an English town in the 1870s. A cathedral dean --- too shy, too bookish, too intimidating to relate to his parishioners --- strikes up an unlikely friendship with the local clockmaker, a priest’s son who wants nothing to do with God. The relationship leads to a spiritual awakening that touches the entire community.

After a rough patch, Madi is determined to get her marriage back on track. She's even taking a romance class at church and getting great suggestions...that fail miserably. The distractions are plenty.  When her mother-in-law moves in --- temporarily, of course --- the stress starts to drive Madi a little crazier than normal. What she wants, more than anything, is some peace among the chaos.