Adult

On Ash Wednesday, 2012, Sara Miles and her friends left their church buildings and carried ashes to the buzzing city streets. They marked the foreheads of neighbors and strangers, sharing blessings with waitresses and drunks, believers and doubters alike. CITY OF GOD narrates the events of the day in vivid detail, exploring the profound implications of touching strangers with a reminder of common mortality.

Detective Inspector Irene Huss hasn’t seen Sophie Malmborg for over 15 years, but she’s still haunted by the strange young ballerina’s role in the fire that killed her stepfather. All her questions resurface when Sophie disappears, and the charred remains of a dancer are found in an abandoned warehouse. Irene has a startling realization that could shed light on the case that has been lingering in the back of her mind since the beginning of her career.

Recovering from the severe mental and physical wounds inflicted from his recent past, former cop Jack Taylor has finally found a modicum of peace. Yet this fragile existence is threatened when a vigilante killer begins targeting the scum of Galway, signing mysterious notes with the moniker “C 33.” The killer addresses these cryptic letters to Jack, trying to goad him into joining the murderous spree.

War correspondent and American spy Christopher Marlowe Cobb is charged with following German intellectual and possible covert SS agent Brauer onto the decks of the Lusitania. On board is gorgeous actress Selene Bourgani, who might be working with German intelligence. But as Cobb tracks Brauer and Bourgani from London to Istanbul (after the scurrilous U-Boat attack on the ship), he realizes that Bourgani’s intentions are more complicated than imagined.

Outrageous, rich, and remarkable, PASTRIX turns spiritual memoir on its ear in this sardonically irreverent and beautifully honest page-turner. Nadia Bolz-Weber takes no prisoners as she reclaims the term "pastrix" (pronounced "pas-triks," a term used by some Christians who refuse to recognize female pastors) in her messy, beautiful, prayer-and-profanity laden narrative about an unconventional life of faith.

Joyce Carol Oates offers four chilling tales of love gone horribly wrong, showing the lengths people will go to find love, keep it and sometimes end it. In the title story, we meet Mariana, the young fourth wife of a prominent intellectual. When her husband's brazen first wife visits one night, Mariana learns a terrible secret that threatens her marriage and sanity.

For many years, Donna Leon has written essays for European publications. Collected here are the best of these: over 50 funny, charming, passionate and insightful essays that range from battles over garbage in the canals to the troubles with rehabbing Venetian real estate. She shares episodes from her life in Venice, explores her love of opera and recounts tales from in and around her country house in the mountains.

Guilt and grief have driven a wedge between crime-fighting partners psychologist Tony Hill and ex-DCI Carol Jordan. Meanwhile, someone is killing women --- women who bear an unsettling resemblance to Carol. And when the evidence begins to point in a disturbing direction, thinking the unthinkable seems the only possible answer. Cornered by events, Tony and Carol are forced to fight for themselves and each other as never before.

Flashbacks and multilayered stories reveal the life of Taro, a relentlessly ambitious Japanese immigrant trying to make his fortune. These flashbacks include memories of an impoverished upbringing as an orphan, his eventual rise to wealth and success --- despite racial and class prejudice --- and an obsession with a girl from an affluent family that has haunted him all his life. A TRUE NOVEL then widens into an examination of Japan’s westernization and the emergence of a middle class.