Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult. Picoult takes on the issue of gay rights in this novel about a music therapist who desperately wants a child.
The Jungle by Clive Cussler with Jack Du Brul. Juan Cabrillo and the crew of the Oregon undertake rescue operations from Afghanistan to Myanmar.
The Paris Wife by Paula McLain. Ernest Hemingway’s first wife, Hadley, narrates this novel set in Paris.
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. The recovery of a lost ancient manuscript in a library at Oxford sets a fantastical underworld stirring.
Minding Frankie by Maeve Binchy. A motherless girl is cared for by a Dublin community, but a social worker believes a foster home is a better solution.
Love You More by Lisa Gardner. Detective D D Warren must solve the case of a dead husband, a battered wife, and a missing child.
River Marked by Patricia Briggs. The shapeshifter Mercy Thompson and her mate, the Alpha werewolf Adam, confront evil lurking in the Columbia River.
Treachery in Death by J. D. Robb. Eve Dallas and her partner, Peabody, investigate a grocer’s murder.
NONFICTION
Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff. A biography of the last queen of ancient Egypt.
Decision Points by George W Bush. The former President’s memoir discusses his Christianity, the end of his drinking, and his decisions on 9/11, Iraq, and Katrina.
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. An Olympic runner’s story of survival as a prisoner of the Japanese in World War II.
CHILDREN
Flat Stanley’s Worldwide Adventures: The Mount Rushmore Calamity by Jeff Brown. Hoping to escape the attention brought on by the accident that flattened Stanley, the Lambchop family drives to South Dakota, where they become involved in a Wild West adventure at Mount Rushmore.
Summer of the Sea Serpent by Mary Pope Osborne. Jack and Annie travel in their magic tree house to the land of the mystical selkies to seek a magical sword for Merlin.
TEENS
Ship Breaker by Paola Bacigalupi. In a futuristic world, teenaged Nailer scavenges copper wiring from grounded oil tankers for a living, but when he finds a beached clipper ship with a girl in the wreckage, he has to decide if he should strip the ship for its wealth or rescue the girl.
Virgin Territory by James Lecesne. When an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary appears on a tree at the Jupiter, Florida golf course where fifteen year old Dylan Flack is caddying for the summer, he encounters a group of “pilgrims” who dare him to take a risk and find out what he really wants out of life.
"Cleopatra: A Life" is not scholarly enough to qualify as a biography--there simply isn't enough information extant about Cleopatra to fill a 300+ page book. All her sources wrote well past Cleopatra's time, or were Roman enemies. Schiff acknowledges the almost total lack of reliable information right from the start, but can't quite overcome the enormity of that obstacle. Her prose is often stilted as she fills pages with everything but Cleopatra's life.
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