Adult

Eric Argus’ prodigious early work clouded his reputation and strained his sanity. But an old friend gives him an opportunity to step back into the light. With three months to produce new research, Eric replicates the paradoxical double-slit experiment to see for himself the mysterious dual nature of light and matter. A simple but unprecedented inference blooms into a staggering discovery about human consciousness and the structure of the universe. His findings are celebrated and condemned in equal measure. But no one can predict where the truth will lead.

Thirty-nine-year-old Adrienne is desperate to be a mother. And this time, nothing is going to get in her way. At 19, Leah bears a remarkable resemblance to the young woman Adrienne once was. Which is why Adrienne knows the baby Leah is carrying is meant to be hers. But Leah has ideas of her own. All she wants is to live in Adrienne’s house for a year after the baby is born and get a fresh start. It seems like a small price for Adrienne to pay to get their baby. And with Adrienne’s husband, Gabe, suddenly on board, what could possibly go wrong?

Married to the powerful leader of her people, safe among those gifted with great ability, Magda Searus is protected from a distant world descending into war. But when her husband, a man who loved life and loved her, unexpectedly commits suicide, she suddenly finds herself alone. Despite her grief, she is driven to find the reasons behind why her husband would do such a thing. Though she is not gifted, she begins to discover that there may be more to his suicide than anyone knew.

When Peter Chin moved his family into an inner-city neighborhood to plant a church, he was sure he was doing what God wanted. But in the span of a few months, his family experienced a heartbreaking miscarriage, a break-in at their home, a breast cancer diagnosis, and the termination of their health insurance. Why would God allow these things to happen? But God had one more surprise prepared for the Chins: a child, conceived in the most unlikely and dangerous of circumstances, through whom Peter would realize that although God's ways were wild and strange, they were always good.

Five single, fiercely independent women live together in a Chicago apartment in the early 1950s but rarely see one another. One Saturday afternoon, they spy a wedding dress in a storefront window. After trying it on --- without a single boyfriend or date between the five of them --- they decide to pool their money to purchase it. Can one dress forever connect five women who live together only a short time before taking their own journeys to love and whatever comes happily ever after?

In 2007, Kevin Palau and a few dozen pastors approached Portland’s mayor and posed the question: How can we serve you with no strings attached? Officials identified five initial areas of need and began a partnership, CityServe, between the city and a band of churches seeking to live out the gospel message. Since then, the CityServe model has inspired communities across the country to take up the cause in their own cities. UNLIKELY not only tells the story of the inception of CityServe, but also challenges readers to evaluate their understanding of the gospel.

Written between 1946 and 1947 while Flannery O'Connor was a student far from home at the University of Iowa, A PRAYER JOURNAL is a rare portal into the interior life of the great writer. Not only does it map O'Connor's singular relationship with the divine, but it shows how entwined her literary desire was with her yearning for God.

Defrauded and intimidated at every turn, the Nez Perces finally went on the warpath in 1877, subjecting the U.S. Army to its greatest defeat since Little Big Horn as they fled from northeast Oregon across Montana to the Canadian border. William T. Vollmann’s main character is not the legendary Chief Joseph, but his pursuer, General Oliver Otis Howard --- the brave, shy, tormented, devoutly Christian Civil War veteran. In this novel, we see him as commander, father, son, husband, friend and killer.

In a Sussex town on the south coast of England, a widely disliked art teacher at a posh private girls’ school disappears without explanation. Meanwhile, a Sussex detective has been suspended for failing to link DNA evidence of a relative to a seven-year-old murder case. When detective Peter Diamond realizes that the suspended officer is an old friend who is not known to make such mistakes, he begins to notice unsettling connections between the cold case and the missing art teacher. Could the two mysteries be connected?

From identity theft to the hazards of bicycling to college reunions and eating on the beach, Lisa Scottoline and her daughter, Francesca Serritella, tackle the quirks, absurdities and wonders of everyday life with wit and warmth. As Lisa says, "More and more, especially in the summertime when I'm sitting on the beach, I'm learning not to sweat it. To go back to the child that I used to be. To see myself through the loving eyes of my parents. To eat on the beach. And not to worry about whether every little thing makes me look fat. In fact, not to worry at all."