Adult

In 18th-century Paris, Jacob Cerf is a Jew, a peddler of knives, saltcellars and snuffboxes. Despite a disastrous teenage marriage, he is determined to raise himself up in life. More than 200 years later, Jacob is amazed to find himself reincarnated as a fly in the Long Island suburbs of 21st-century America. Thanks to his arrival, the lives of a reliable volunteer fireman and a young Orthodox Jewish woman nursing a secret ambition will never be the same.

Mohsin Hamid’s third novel follows its nameless hero to the sprawling metropolis where he begins to amass an empire built on that most fluid, and increasingly scarce, of goods: water. Yet his heart remains set on something else, on the pretty girl whose star rises along with his, their paths crossing and recrossing, a lifelong affair sparked and snuffed and sparked again by the forces that careen their fates along.

A lonely man’s desire for a wife is the catalyst for the creation of a golem like no other. When she’s left master-less on the streets of New York City, she fights her ingrained impulse to help and protect those around her. A jinni, captured and enslaved hundreds of years ago, is free of his flask but not truly free as the iron cuff that keeps him in human form remains on his wrist. The golem and the jinni are drawn to each other, kindred spirits of long-forgotten fairy tales.

When the concierge of The Alexander, a historic Atlanta apartment building, invites his fellow residents to join him for weekly screenings of “Downton Abbey,” four very different people find themselves connecting with the addictive drama --- and, even more unexpectedly, with each other.

Sage Singer becomes friends with an old man who’s particularly beloved in her community after they strike up a conversation at the bakery where she works. Josef Weber is everyone’s favorite retired teacher and Little League coach. One day he asks Sage for a favor: to kill him. When a shocked Sage refuses, he then tells her he deserves to die. Once he reveals his secret, Sage wonders if he’s right.

For Cora Kensington, the journey of a lifetime takes unexpected twists. And her future --- her very life --- depends on the decisions she’ll make at each crossroad. As her European tour with her newfound family takes her through Austria, France and Italy, an unseen enemy trails close behind. Meanwhile, a forbidden love continues to claim her heart, putting everyone’s plans in danger.

More than a year ago, mild-mannered Jason Getty killed a man he wished he’d never met. Then he planted the problem a little too close to home. But just as he’s learning to live with the undeniable reality of what he’s done, police unearth two bodies on his property --- neither of which is the one Jason buried. Jason races to stay ahead of the consequences of his crime, and while chaos reigns on his lawn, his sanity unravels, snagged on the agendas of a colorful cast of strangers.

Bond may have a license to kill, but “Pistols” Scaramanga has a talent for it. He’s a KGB-trained assassin who’s left a trail of dead British Secret Service agents in his wake. His weapon of choice? A gold-plated Colt .45. In the aftermath of his brainwashing by the Soviets, Bond is given one last chance to win back M’s trust: terminate Scaramanga before he strikes MI6 again.

After finally tracking the SPECTRE chief to a stronghold in the Swiss Alps, Bond uncovers the details of Blofeld’s latest plot: a biological warfare scheme more audacious than anything the fiend has tried before. Now Bond must save the world once again --- and survive Blofeld’s last, very personal, act of vengeance.

Vivienne Michel, a precocious French Canadian raised in the United Kingdom, seems a foreigner in every land. While traveling in the Adirondacks, Viv opens the door to her room at the Motor Court and finds two armed mobsters and realizes being a woman alone is no easy task. But when a third stranger shows --- a confident Englishman with a keen sense for sizing things up --- the tables are turned.