Adult

Rod Dreher, a Philadelphia journalist, returns to his hometown in the wake of his younger sister Ruthie's death. He begins to wonder whether the ordinary life Ruthie led was in fact a path of hidden grandeur, even spiritual greatness, concealed within the modest life of a mother and teacher. In order to explore this revelation, Dreher and his wife decide to have their three children grow up amidst the rituals that had defined his family for five generations.

Cecilia Ross is looking for a change. She has decided to take time off from her job as a successful motivational speaker and sell her home. She moves in to a beautiful old house in St. Paul, Minnesota, complete with a big front porch, a wild garden, a chef's kitchen --- and three roommates. The four women are different ages, but all are feeling restless, and want to take a road trip to find again the people and things they miss.

Police officer Nina Hoffman finds her fellow officer David Lindholm naked on his bed with bullets through his head and stomach. His traumatized wife, Julia, rambles on about a woman entering the house, killing David and running off with her son, but all the evidence seems to point in Julia’s direction. Annika Bengtzon covers the case and is drawn in headfirst when she sees that Julia is about to be falsely charged.

On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born to an English banker and his wife but dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born and embarks upon a life that will be unusual. As she grows, she also dies --- repeatedly, in a variety of ways --- while the young century marches on towards its second cataclysmic world war. Does Ursula's apparently infinite number of lives give her the power to save the world from its inevitable destiny?

From the unique perspective of David Sedaris comes a new book of essays taking his readers on a bizarre and stimulating world tour. From the perils of French dentistry to the eating habits of the Australian kookaburra, from the squat-style toilets of Beijing to the particular wilderness of a North Carolina Costco, we learn about the absurdity and delight of a curious traveler's experiences.

Iraq 2005. Seven mercenaries hear an enticing rumor: somewhere in the swirling desert sands lies an abandoned Republican Guard convoy containing millions of pounds of Saddam's gold. Although all seems eerily quiet and deserted when they arrive, they soon find themselves caught in a desperate battle for their lives, confronted by greed, betrayal, and an army that won't stay dead. 

The summer that Richard Nixon resigns, six teenagers at a summer camp for the arts become inseparable. Decades later the bond remains powerful, but so much else has changed. In THE INTERESTINGS, Meg Wolitzer follows these characters from the height of youth through middle age, as their talents, fortunes and degrees of satisfaction diverge.

In her two decades of writing, Elinor Lipman has populated her fictional universe with characters so utterly real that we feel like they’re old friends. Now she shares an even more intimate world with us --- her own --- in essays that offer a candid, charming take on modern life. Looking back and forging ahead, she considers the subjects that matter most: childhood and condiments, long marriage and solo living, career and politics.

After surviving a shooting at her high school, Linnea is packed off to live with her estranged father. His neighbor, Christie, is a nurse distracted by an eccentric patient, Mrs. Foster, who has given Christie the reins to her Humanity Project, a bizarre and well-endowed charity fund. Meanwhile, Conner, the Fosters’ handyman, has become the one person in which Linnea can confide. As these characters and many more hurtle toward their fates, the Humanity Project is born: Can you indeed pay someone to be good? At what price?

Leo Maxwell’s older brother Teddy, a successful yet reviled criminal defense attorney, has been shot and lies in a coma. Leo quickly realizes that the list of possible suspects is much larger than he could have imagined. The deeper he digs into Teddy’s life, the more questions arise. Somewhere, the person who shot his brother is still on the loose, and there are many who would happily kill Leo in order to keep it that way.