Adult

The lives of England’s medieval queens were packed with incident, but their stories have been largely obscured by centuries of myth and omission. Now Alison Weir restores these women to their rightful place in history. Spanning the years from the Norman conquest in 1066 to the dawn of a new era in 1154, when Henry II succeeded to the throne and Eleanor of Aquitaine, the first Plantagenet queen, was crowned, QUEENS OF THE CONQUEST brings to vivid life five women, including Matilda of Flanders, wife of William the Conqueror, the first Norman king; Matilda of Scotland, revered as “the common mother of all England”; and Empress Maud, England’s first female ruler, whose son King Henry II would go on to found the Plantagenet dynasty.

When 81-year-old Jay Mendelsohn decides to enroll in the undergraduate ODYSSEY seminar his son teaches at Bard College, the two find themselves on an adventure as profoundly emotional as it is intellectual. For Jay, this return to the classroom is his "one last chance" to learn the great literature he'd neglected in his youth --- and a final opportunity to more fully understand his son, a writer and classicist. But through the sometimes-uncomfortable months that the two men explore Homer's great work together, it becomes clear that Daniel has much to learn, too: Jay's responses to both the text and their travels gradually uncover long-buried secrets that allow the son to understand his difficult father at last.

In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is planned. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson. Enter Mia Warren, who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenage daughter and rents a house from the Richardsons. But Mia carries a mysterious past and a disregard for the status quo that threatens to upend this community. When family friends of the Richardsons attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that divides the town --- and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia's past. But her obsession will come at unexpected and devastating costs.

On the day of Barack Obama’s inauguration, an enigmatic billionaire from foreign shores takes up residence in the architectural jewel of “the Gardens,” a cloistered community in New York’s Greenwich Village. Along with his improbable name, untraceable accent, and unmistakable whiff of danger, Nero Golden has brought along his three adult sons. There is no mother, no wife. At least not until Vasilisa, a sleek Russian expat, snags the septuagenarian Nero, becoming the queen to his king --- a queen in want of an heir. Our guide to the Goldens’ world is their neighbor René, an ambitious young filmmaker. Researching a movie about the Goldens, he ingratiates himself into their household.

When a sadistic gang leader nicknamed Benito starts to torture Faria, a young Bangladeshi prisoner, Lisbeth Salander finds it impossible not to intervene. Now a target of Benito and her gang, Salander's time in prison is further complicated by news from her old guardian, who tells her she may have been a subject in a secret experiment known as the Registry. She enlists her friend Mikael Blomkvist, crusading editor of Millennium magazine, to help her look into it. Once Salander is released, she devotes her time to uncovering the truth in the case that landed Faria in prison, and Blomkvist continues his search into Salander's background. But when the two cases start to dovetail, Salander and Blomkvist must join together to fight for justice and their lives.

The stories in FIVE-CARAT SOUL --- none of them ever published before --- spring from the place where identity, humanity and history converge. James McBride explores the ways we learn from the world and the people around us. An antiques dealer discovers that a legendary toy commissioned by Civil War General Robert E. Lee now sits in the home of a black minister in Queens. Five strangers find themselves thrown together and face unexpected judgment. An American president draws inspiration from a conversation he overhears in a stable. And members of The Five-Carat Soul Bottom Bone Band recount stories from their own messy and hilarious lives.

Growing up in rural El Salvador in the wake of the civil war, the United States was a distant fantasy to identical twins Ernesto and Raul Flores --- until, at age 17, a deadly threat from the region’s brutal gangs forces them to flee the only home they’ve ever known. Journalist Lauren Markham follows the Flores twins as they make their way across the Rio Grande and the Texas desert, into the hands of immigration authorities, and from there to their estranged older brother in Oakland, CA. Soon these unaccompanied minors are navigating school in a new language, working to pay down their mounting coyote debt, and facing their day in immigration court, while also encountering the triumphs and pitfalls of teenage life with only each other for support.

A Hungarian warehouse owner lies in the middle of his blood-sodden office, pierced through the chest with a bayonet and eerily surrounded by 17 candles, their wicks dipped in blood. Suspecting the murder may be rooted in ethnic prejudice, Commander William Monk turns to London’s Hungarian community in search of clues but finds his inquiries stymied by its wary citizens and a language he doesn’t speak. Only with the help of a local pharmacist acting as translator can Monk hope to penetrate this tightly knit enclave, even as more of its members fall victim to identical brutal murders. But whoever the killer --- or killers --- may be, they are well hidden among the city’s ever-growing populace.

Suburban New Jersey Detective Napoleon “Nap” Dumas hasn't been the same since senior year of high school, when his twin brother Leo and Leo’s girlfriend Diana were found dead on the railroad tracks --- and Maura, the girl Nap considered the love of his life, broke up with him and disappeared without explanation. For 15 years, Nap has been searching, both for Maura and for the real reason behind his brother's death. And now, it looks as though he may finally find what he's been looking for. When Maura's fingerprints turn up in the rental car of a suspected murderer, Nap embarks on a quest for answers that only leads to more questions --- mostly about Leo and Diana, whose deaths are darker and far more sinister than Nap ever dared imagine.

In the Negev desert, a nameless prisoner languishes in a secret cell, his only companion the guard who has watched over him for a dozen years. Meanwhile, the prisoner’s arch nemesis --- The General, Israel’s most controversial leader --- lies dying in a hospital bed. From Israel and Gaza to Paris, Italy and America, Nathan Englander provides a kaleidoscopic view of the prisoner’s unlikely journey to his cell.