Lucky Break

The Measure

Nikki Erlick · 472 pages

Eight ordinary people. One extraordinary choice. It seems like any other day. You wake up, drink a cup of coffee, and head out. But today, when you open your front door, waiting for you is a small wooden box. The contents of this mysterious box tells you the exact number of years you will live. From suburban doorsteps to desert tents, every person on every continent receives the same box.

The Great Passage

Shion Miura, San Pu shiwon · 223 pages

"Inspired as a boy by the multiple meanings to be found for a single word in the dictionary, Kohei Araki is devoted to the notion that a dictionary is a boat to carry us across the sea of words. But after thirty-seven years creating them at Gembu Books, it's time for him to retire and find his replacement. He discovers a kindred spirit in Mitsuya Majime--a young, disheveled square peg with a pench

Here One Moment

Liane Moriarty · 518 pages

A woman stands up on a plane, and predicts when everyone will die. Everyone laughs it off until it starts to come true"-- Provided by publisher.

The School of Essential Ingredients

Erica Bauermeister · 240 pages

Reminiscent of Chocolat and Like Water for Chocolate, a gorgeously written novel about life, love, and the magic of food.The School of Essential Ingredients follows the lives of eight students who gather in Lillian's Restaurant every Monday night for cooking class. It soon becomes clear, however, that each one seeks a recipe for something beyond the kitchen. Students include Claire, a young mother

Pay It Forward

Catherine Ryan Hyde · 299 pages

The story of a social studies teacher who gives an assignment to his junior high school class to think of an idea to change the world for the better, then put it into action. When one young student creates a plan for "paying forward" favors, he not only affects the life of his struggling single mother, but he sets in motion an unprecedented wave of human kindness which, unbeknownst to him, has blo

The Dart League King

Keith Lee Morris · 270 pages

Invincible Summer

Alice Adams · 320 pages

Four close friends who graduate college together in 1998 venture off to pursue their fortunes in the new millennium, but find themselves drawn back together twenty years later amidst broken dreams, lost jobs, and shattered relationships.

Halfway House

Katharine Noel · 367 pages

"Met with overwhelming critical praise on its initial hardcover release-- including raves from The New York Times and Entertainment Weekly-- this remarkable debut novel by Katharine Noel illuminates the fault lines in one family's relationships, as well as the complex emotional ties that bind them together. One day, Angie Voorster--diligent student, all-star swimmer and Ivy League-bound high schoo

Alentejo Blue

Monica Ali · 304 pages

Before Everything

Victoria Redel · 274 pages

"A luminous and richly layered novel evoking The Big Chill--the story of a group of lifetime friends who gather together to confront life, love, and now, mortality Before Everything is a celebration of friendship and love between a group of women who have known one another since they were girls. They've faced everything together, from youthful sprees and scrapes to mid-life turning points. Now, as

How the García Girls Lost Their Accents

Julia Alvarez · 304 pages

It\'s a long way from Santo Domingo to the Bronx, but if anyone can go the distance, it\'s the Garcia girls. Four lively latinas plunged from a pampered life of privilege on an island compound into the big-city chaos of New York, they rebel against Mami and Papi\'s old-world discipline and embrace all that America has to offer.

Recessional

James A. Michener · 484 pages

Set in the Palms, a Florida retirement center, Recessional follows several residents over the course of a year as their individual narratives - humorous, moving, or sometimes triumphant - unfold. Chris Mallory reluctantly relinquishes his driver's license at the age of ninety, but refuses to hang up his dancing shoes. The Palm's five self-appointed elders, all once outstanding in their respectiv

The Heirs

Susan Rieger · 254 pages

Six months after Rupert Falkes dies, leaving a grieving widow and five adult sons, an unknown woman sues his estate, claiming she had two sons by him. The Falkes brothers are pitched into turmoil, at once missing their father and feeling betrayed by him. In disconcerting contrast, their mother, Eleanor, is cool and calm, showing preternatural composure.

South of Broad

Pat Conroy · 646 pages

The publishing event of the season: The one and only Pat Conroy returns, with a big, sprawling novel that is at once a love letter to Charleston and to lifelong friendship.Against the sumptuous backdrop of Charleston, South Carolina, South of Broad gathers a unique cast of sinners and saints. Leopold Bloom King, our narrator, is the son of an amiable, loving father who teaches science at the local

A Fortunate Age

Joanna Smith Rakoff · 399 pages

A group of 1990s-era Oberlin graduates forge a friendship based on shared dreams, but find their camaraderie threatened by their youthful mistakes, their relationships with egocentric and insecure men, and the September 11 attacks.

Funny Girl

Nick Hornby · 452 pages

"From the bestselling author of High Fidelity, About a Boy, and A Long Way Down comes a highly anticipated new novel. Set in 1960's London, Funny Girl is a lively account of the adventures of the intrepid young Sophie Straw as she navigates her transformation from provincial ingenue to television starlet amid a constellation of delightful characters. Insightful and humorous, Nick Hornby's latest d

The Schopenhauer Cure

Irvin D. Yalom · 358 pages

The Secret Intensity of Everyday Life

William Nicholson

Bottomless Belly Button

Dash Shaw · 722 pages

A comedy-drama that follows the dysfunctional adventures of the Loony Family. After 40-plus years of marriage, Maggie and David Loony shock their children with their announcement of a planned divorce. But the reason for splitting isn't itself shocking: they're "just not in love any more." The announcement sparks a week-long Loony family reunion at Maggie and David's creepy and possibly haunted bea

Life After Life

Jill McCorkle · 418 pages

The residents, staff, and neighbors of the Pine Haven retirement center (from twelve-year-old Abby to eighty-five-year-old Sadie) share some of life's most profound discoveries. What they eventually learn about themselves and one another will transform them all.

The Ladies Auxiliary

Tova Mirvis · 328 pages

Want Not

Jonathan Miles · 400 pages

On Thanksgiving Day a freegan couple living off the grid in Manhattan, a once prominent linguist struggling with midlife, and a New Jersey debt-collection magnate with a second chance at getting things right randomly and briefly collide as the weight of their desires ultimately undoes each of them, leaving them to pick up the pieces from what's left behind.

Heat & Light

Jennifer Haigh · 535 pages

Bestselling author Jennifer Haigh returns to the Pennsylvania town and the conflicting forces at its heart - hope and desperation, greed and power, big business and small-town families. Forty years ago, Bakerton coal fueled the country. Then the mines closed, and the town wore away. Now Bakerton has been granted a surprise third act: it sits squarely atop the Marcellus Shale, a massive deposit of

The Weekend

Bernhard Schlink · 215 pages

Old friends and lovers reunite for a weekend in a secluded country home after spending decades apart. They plumb their memories of each other and pass quiet judgments on the life decisions each has made since their youth. This isn't, however, just any old reunion, and their conversations of the old days aren't typical reminiscences.