Adult

Charlie is a Husker on the prowl in the New Hampshire wilderness when he falls in love with one of them: a girl named Jill. Loving Jill means leaving the Husk clan, with its gruesome cannibalistic rituals, and that will be far more difficult --- and dangerous --- than Charlie could have foreseen. It’s only in New York City that the secret to ending his terrible cravings may reveal itself --- if it doesn’t kill him and everything he has grown to love first.

Want to see the future? Ask an English teacher. If you can't remember the last time you were filled with wonder or read anything you loved, read on. Here you won't just find helpful reading and writing tips. You'll also learn about how literacy brings us back from the abyss of modernity and into the heart of what matters. In conversations with Dante, Bradbury, McCarthy, Michelangelo and more, you'll encounter wisdom of the ages, and discover what these greats teach us about our own world: approval addiction, bullying, Kevin Bacon, narcissism, Darth Vader, and the dangerous allure of nihilism.

Safely back in his own time, Shawn is steadily regaining all he lost --- his career as a world-traveling musician, the son he feared he would never know, and finally, maybe, even Amy’s heart. But as he does, he learns of the dangers still lurking in 14th-century Scotland: to Niall who will pay the price for the deed Shawn committed; to his own son, the subject of prophecy and an ancient letter predicting a fateful battle; even danger to the whole world as the Butcher of Berwick uses his knowledge of the future to destroy it. In this gripping conclusion to The Blue Bells Chronicles, Shawn faces the ultimate test. His selfishness once cost him everything. His newfound selflessness may do the same.

During Sarah Smarsh’s turbulent childhood in Kansas in the 1980s and 1990s, she enjoyed the freedom of a country childhood, but observed the painful challenges of the poverty around her --- untreated medical conditions for lack of insurance or consistent care, unsafe job conditions, abusive relationships, and limited resources and information that would provide for the upward mobility that is the American Dream. By telling the story of her life and the lives of the people she loves with clarity and precision but without judgment, Smarsh challenges us to look more closely at the class divide in our country.

Fans fell in love with Eliza Hamilton --- Alexander Hamilton’s devoted wife --- in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s phenomenal musical “Hamilton.” But they don’t know her full story. A strong pioneer woman, a loving sister, a caring mother and, in her later years, a generous philanthropist, Eliza had many sides. Tilar J. Mazzeo’s biography follows Eliza through her early years in New York, into the ups and downs of her married life with founding father Alexander Hamilton, beyond the aftermath of his tragic murder, and finally to her involvement in many projects that cemented her legacy as one of the unsung heroes of our nation’s early days.

“This is not a book about the politics of immigration. This book --- at its core --- is not about immigration at all. This book is about homelessness, not in a traditional sense, but in the unsettled, unmoored psychological state that undocumented immigrants like myself find ourselves in. This book is about lying and being forced to lie to get by; about passing as an American and as a contributing citizen; about families, keeping them together, and having to make new ones when you can’t. This book is about constantly hiding from the government and, in the process, hiding from ourselves. This book is about what it means to not have a home. After 25 years of living illegally in a country that does not consider me one of its own, this book is the closest thing I have to freedom.”

A group of criminals in 1946 pull off the heist of the century, stealing a dozen priceless works of art from a Boston museum. But while the thieves get caught, the art is never found. Forty years later, the last surviving thief gets out of jail and goes hunting for the loot, involving some innocent college students in his dangerous plan --- and 30 years after that, in the present day, the former college kids, now all grown up, are drawn back into danger as the still-missing art tempts a deadly new generation of treasure hunters.

Bluegrass musician, former journalist and editor, and now PhD in English, Mark Brumfeld has arrived at his 30s with significant debt and no steady prospects. His girlfriend Cassie --- a punk bassist in an all-female band --- finds work at a “new media” company. When Cassie refuses his marriage proposal, Mark leaves New York and returns to the basement of his childhood home. Desperate and humiliated, he begins to post a series of online video monologues that critique Baby Boomers and their powerful hold on the job market. But as his videos go viral, and while Cassie starts to build her career, Mark loses control of what he began --- with consequences that ensnare them in a matter of national security.

The murder of a woman from one of Rosedale, Mississippi’s oldest families has the town’s upper crust howling for blood, and the prosecutor is counting on defense counsel Ruby Bozarth's inexperience to help him deliver a swift conviction. As news breaks of a second murder, Ruby's ex-fiance, Lee Greene, shows up on her doorstep --- a Southern gentleman in need of a savior. As lurid, intertwining investigations unfold, no one in Rosedale can be trusted, especially the 12 men and women impaneled on the jury. They may be hiding the most incendiary secret of all.

Stella Widstrand is a psychotherapist and a happily married mother to a 13-year-old son. But when a young woman named Isabelle steps into her clinic to begin therapy, Stella's placid life begins to crumble. She is convinced that Isabelle is her daughter, Alice --- the baby who tragically disappeared more than 20 years ago on a beach during a family vacation. Stella has always believed that Alice is alive, somewhere, but everyone around her worries she's delusional. Could this be Alice? Stella will risk everything to answer that question, but in doing so she will set in motion a sequence of events beyond her control, endangering herself and everyone she loves.