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Alex Lupo is a gay foster teen in New York City. Isolated by circumstances, not knowing his parents but aware that they were Italian, he scrutinizes the faces of Italian-looking strangers and fantasizes about possible family connections. Having been raped at his previous foster home, he worries about HIV and about ever being able to enjoy sex."My life is worth more than a few minutes of anyone's pleasure."Alessandro Lupo (Alex) is a sixteen-year-old gay foster child who has been moved from "home" to "home" in New York City. Isolated by circumstances and by the protective shield he's surrounded himself with, he wanders the streets of the West Village and gravitates toward Stonewall Inn, where the 1969 riots planted the seeds of the gay civil rights movement. Having been raped at his previous foster home, he worries about HIV and about ever being able to enjoy sex. Alex, whose parents had both been Italian, feels his lack of family keenly. As he wanders the city streets, he scrutinizes people who might also be Italian. Alex is short for Alessandro, which means defender of men; Lupo means wolf. But Alex feels fearful most of the time—fear not just of Derek, the other foster teen in his current home, but also of life in general—and wishes for the courage of his 19th century countryman, Giuseppe Garibaldi, with whose statue in Washington Square Park Alex has imaginary conversations.Then Alex meets two people who represent polar opposites: one who validates the low opinion Alex already has of himself; and another who helps him see himself in an entirely new light and teaches him that his life is worth more than a few minutes of anyone's pleasure.

Robin Reardon

Unanticipated Reunion

Noelle Simpson is devastated when her husband Trevor dies. He left her half the company he'd built with Lincoln Mathias. Now Noelle has to move to San Francisco and convince Linc that she can come up to speed and pull her weight as a full partner. All without thinking about her husband's final suggestion–that she and Linc get married.Lincoln Mathias isn't interested in having Noelle around trying to fill Trevor's place. His partner had been instrumental in growing the company. Noelle had married the boss and stopped work years ago. Yet Trevor's last wish was she become a full partner. Her lack of knowledge was enough to refuse, but the attraction Linc's felt for her all these years will be almost impossible to deal with if she moves to San Francisco.They had once worked together, but neither expected the change that brought them back together. Can moving on provide a way to lasting love and happiness? If you like reunion stories, you'll love Unanticipated...

Barbara McMahon

Snakes and Ladders

A body lies amongst the undergrowth in Mildenheath Woods. His hands are bound behind his back, and he's been killed execution-style.

But the victim isn't a gangland kingpin: he's a well-liked young man, never in any trouble, who had his whole life ahead of him.

But as Jack Culverhouse and Wendy Knight begin to dig deeper into what happened, a shocking new truth comes to light. Was the victim quite as innocent as he seemed?

Adam Croft

First Person

Six weeks to write for your life... In this blistering story of a ghostwriter haunted by his demonic subject, the Man Booker Prize winner turns to lies, crime and literature with devastating effect A young and penniless writer, Kif Kehlmann, is rung in the middle of the night by the notorious con man and corporate criminal, Siegfried Heidl. About to go to trial for defrauding the banks of $700 million, Heidl proposes a deal: $10,000 for Kehlmann to ghost write his memoir in six weeks. But as the writing gets under way, Kehlmann begins to fear that he is being corrupted by Heidl. As the deadline draws closer, he becomes ever more unsure if he is ghost writing a memoir, or if Heidl is rewriting him—his life, his future. Everything that was certain grows uncertain as he begins to wonder: who is Seigfried Heidl—and who is Kif Kehlmann? By turns compelling, comic, and chilling, First Person is a haunting journey into the heart of our age.

Richard Flanagan

The Ninth Configuration

The Ninth Configuration is set in a remote castle which the US government is using as a military asylum. A Marine Corps psychiatrist with a crisis of faith encourages his patients to enact their fantasies as part of their therapy. However, he proves himself to be more deeply disturbed than at first appears and finally sacrifices himself to save one of his patients.

The Ninth Configuration

The Land Lubbers Lying Down Below (Penguin Specials)

'Tonight it is the concert. Two Prodigies of Nature are coming to play in my lady's ball-room. As soon as the concert begins I understand why the whole world comes to stare and listen.'Scipio is eleven years old and a lady's page. He plays the harpsichord, speaks French and German, and sings in Italian. But what was appealing and remarkable in a small child is no longer so in a 'hobbledehoy'. And after he meets the two child prodigies, Wolfi and Nannerl, at a concert, Scipio's fate will change forever.

Helen Dunmore

Mr. Tiger, Betsy, and the Sea Dragon

Award-winning author Sally Gardner delivers another whimsical tale about the daughter of a mermaid and an ice cream maker, a mysterious talking tiger, and a search for a sea dragon's magical underwater orchard in this second book in the Mr. Tiger series.From a magical world of well-dressed animals, talking toads, and bossy princesses comes a fresh tale of Mr. Tiger, Betsy K. Glory, and a wicked pirate in search of golden apples. A rare egg has gone missing and a very unhappy sea dragon wants it back. It's time for Mr. Tiger, Betsy, and the Gongalongs to set sail on their second adventure.

Sally Gardner

My Italian Bulldozer

When writer Paul Stewart heads to the idyllic Italian town of Montalcino to finish his already late book, it seems like the perfect escape from stressful city life. Upon landing, however, things quickly take a turn for the worse when he discovers his hired car is nowhere to be found. With no record of any reservation and no other cars available it looks like Paul is stuck at the airport. That is, until an enterprising stranger offers him an unexpected alternative. While there may be no cars available there is something else on offer: a bulldozer. With little choice in the matter, Paul accepts and so begins a series of laugh out loud adventures through the Italian countryside, following in the wake of Paul and his Italian Bulldozer. A story of unexpected circumstance and lesson in making the best of what you have, My Italian Bulldozer is a warm holiday read guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

My Italian Bulldozer

Time Will Tell

A young-adult thriller ricocheting between the bigotry of the past and present as teens unravel their parents' secrets. Perfect for fans of One of Us is Lying. Four teens have dug up the time capsule that their parents buried in 1986 and never bothered to recover. But in addition to the expected ephemera of mixtapes, Walkmans, photographs, letters, toys, and assorted junk, Elayah, Liam, Marcie, and Jorja discover something sinister: a hunting knife stained with blood and wrapped with a note. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to kill anyone." As the action dramatically alternates between the present day and 1986, the mystery unfolds and the sins of the past echo into today. The teens haven't just unearthed a time capsule: they've also dug up pain and secrets that someone—maybe one of their own parents—is willing to kill for.

Barry Lyga

Bertie's Guide to Life and Mothers

Alexander McCall Smith's wildly popular 44 Scotland Street series chronicles life in a corner of Edinburgh brimming with wit and humor. Newlywed painter and sometime somnambulist Angus Lordie might be sleepwalking his way into trouble with Animal Welfare when he lets his dog Cyril drink a bit too much lager at the local bar. The longsuffering Bertie, on the cusp of his seventh birthday party, has taken to dreaming about his eighteenth, a time when he will be able to avoid the indignity of unwanted girl attendees and the looming threat of a gender-neutral doll from his domineering mother Irene. Matthew and Elspeth struggle to care for their triplets, contending with Danish au pairs and dubious dukes to boot, while the narcissistic Bruce faces his greatest challenge yet in the form of an over-eager waxologist. As ever, when Alexander McCall Smith visits 44 Scotland Street, fun is sure to follow.

Bertie's Guide to Life and Mothers

A Quilt For Dietrich Bonhoeffer

This volume was written during National Poetry Writing Month, 2014. It chronicles this author’s foray into quilting while studying Dietrich Bonhoeffer throughout Lent and Easter. Other themes such as aging, chemotherapy, and wayward novels find their way into the verses, alongside music, baseball, old photographs, and laundry.During NaPoWriMo, or National Poetry Writing Month, this author’s goal was to fashion one poem per day throughout April 2014. That objective was met in a gamut of poems, many concerning quilting and the martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Other subjects were tackled, such as writing, chemotherapy, music, baseball, and laundry, sometimes within one poem. Ultimately, this volume is bound by fabrics and faith, and the question of what a twentieth century pastor silenced by the Nazis might have done if he’d conjured sewing a quilt.

Anna Scott Graham

Count Luna

At once a chase novel, black comedy, and softly keening death song, Count Luna starts off at a gallop and accelerates into warp speedAt the start of WWII, Alexander Jessiersky, an Austrian aristocrat, heads a great Viennese shipping company. He detests the Nazis, and when his board of directors asks him to go along with confiscating a neighbor's large parcel of land for their thriving wartime business, Jessiersky refuses. Yet, without his knowledge, the board succeeds in sending the owner of the land, a certain Count Luna, to a Nazi concentration camp on a trumped-up charge.Years later the war is over, but after a series of mysterious events, Jessiersky, deeply paranoid, becomes convinced that Count Luna has survived and seeks vengeance; driven to kill the source of his dread, he decides to hunt down Luna—and his years-long chase after the spectral count finally takes him deep into the catacombs of Rome... The nightmare logic of Count Luna...

Count Luna

Grown Ups

Marian Keyes

The Moon by Night

Vicky Austin is filled with uncertainties about everything. Her parents call it Vicky's "difficult year." But fourteen-year-old Vicky is not so consumed with her problems that she can't enjoy the exciting adventures of her family's summer cross-country camping trip.In the course of their travels Vicky meets Zachary, an intriguing but troubled boy who latches on to Vicky. And still another boy, Andy, altogether different from Zachary, soon becomes his rival. Far from the comfort and security that the family has always known, and in spite of the trials they encounter on the road, the Austins enjoy each other and the sights from the Atlantic to the Pacific and back again. And for the first time Vicky feels the mixed emotions of friendship and love.

Madeleine L'engle

A Family Daughter

Maile Meloy’s debut novel, Liars and Saints, captured the hearts of readers and critics alike. Now Meloy returns with a novel even more dazzling and unexpected than her first. A Family Daughter is a brilliantly entertaining, powerfully moving novel about families, love, and the desire to reimagine one’s own history. It’s 1979, and seven-year-old Abby, the youngest member of the close-knit Santerre family, is trapped indoors with the chicken pox during a heat wave. The events set in motion that summer will span decades and continents, as the Santerres become entangled with an aging French playboy, a young Eastern European prostitute, a spoiled heiress, and her ailing jet-set mother. With elegant precision, Meloy takes us through the world of this changeable family, its values and taboos, its heartbreak and bitterness and fierce devotion. A rich, full novel about passion and desire, fear and betrayal, A Family Daughter illuminates both the joys and complications of contemporary life and the relationship between truth and fiction. For everyone who has yet to meet the Santerres, unmatched pleasure awaits.

Maile Meloy

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