Sons and daughters of ease and plenty - Ramona Ausubel

The secret history - Donna Tartt

The secret history - Tartt, Donna

Summary: Richard Papen, a relatively impoverished student at a New England college, falls in with an exclusive clique of rich, worldly Greek scholars and soon learns the dreadful secret that keeps them together. Reprint - (Baker & Taylor)



Publishers Weekly Reviews
Tartt's much bruited first novel is a huge (592 pages) rambling story that is sometimes ponderous, sometimes highly entertaining. Part psychological thriller, part chronicle of debauched, wasted youth, it suffers from a basically improbable plot, a fault Tartt often redeems through the bravado of her execution. Narrator Richard Papen comes from a lower-class family and a loveless California home to the ``hermetic, overheated atmosphere'' of Vermont's Hampden College. Almost too easily, he is accepted into a clique of five socially sophisticated students who study Classics with an idiosyncratic, morally fraudulent professor. Despite their demanding curriculum (they quote Greek classics to each other at every opportunity) the friends spend most of their time drinking and taking pills. Finally they reveal to Richard that they accidentally killed a man during a bacchanalian frenzy; when one of their number seems ready to spill the secret, the group--now including Richard--must kill him, too. The best parts of the book occur after the second murder, when Tartt describes the effect of the death on a small community, the behavior of the victim's family and the conspirators' emotional disintegration. Here her gifts for social satire and character analysis are shown to good advantage and her writing is powerful and evocative. On the other hand, the plot's many inconsistencies, the self-indulgent, high-flown references to classic literature and the reliance on melodrama make one wish this had been a tauter, more focused novel. In the final analysis, however, readers may enjoy the pull of a mysterious, richly detailed story told by a talented writer. 75,000 first printing; BOMC and QPB selections. (Sept.) Copyright 1992 Cahners Business Information.

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The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry - Gabrielle Zevin

The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry - Zevin, Gabrielle

Summary: When his most prized possession, a rare collection of Poe poems, is stolen, bookstore owner A. J. Fikry begins isolating himself from his friends, family and associates before receiving a mysterious package that compels him to remake his life.



Booklist Reviews
In this sweet, uplifting homage to bookstores, Zevin perfectly captures the joy of connecting people and books. A. J. Fikry, the cantankerous owner of Island Books, is despondent after losing his beloved wife and witnessing the ever-declining number of sales at his small, quirky bookstore. In short order, he loses all patience with the new Knightly Press sales rep, his prized rare edition of Tamerlane is stolen, and someone leaves a baby at his store. That baby immediately steals A. J.'s heart and unleashes a dramatic transformation. Suddenly, the picture-book section is overflowing with new titles, and the bookstore becomes home to a burgeoning number of book clubs. With business on the uptick and love in his heart, A. J. finds himself becoming an essential new part of his longtime community, going so far as to woo the aforementioned sales rep (who loves drinking Queequeg cocktails at the Pequod Restaurant). Filled with interesting characters, a deep knowledge of bookselling, wonderful critiques of classic titles, and very funny depictions of book clubs and author events, this will prove irresistible to book lovers everywhere.

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The Cahill Witch Chronicles - Jessica Spotswood

The Cahill Witch Chronicles - Spotswood, Jessica

Summary: In an alternate New England of 1900, where the Brotherhood dominates and controls society, sixteen-year-old Cate Cahill has struggled since her mother's death to keep secret that she and her younger sisters are witches, but when a governess arrives from the Sisterhood, everything changes.



Booklist Reviews
The prophecy written in Mother's diary is clear: "A trio of sisters will come of age, all witches. One of the sisters, who will be gifted with mind-magic, will be the most powerful witch born in centuries." Her daughters—Cate, Maura, and Tess—compose the trio, and Cate is the one who possesses mind-magic. But Mother is dead, Father is oblivious, and the Brotherhood is intent on stamping out all witches in New England in an effort to squelch female independence and initiative. How can Cate protect herself and her sisters from the Brotherhood's terrifying scrutiny? Spotswood has melded historical fiction with the paranormal into an intriguing story of witchcraft, family responsibility, and unrequited love. A constant undercurrent of uneasiness permeates the novel; readers will find themselves tantalized by Cate's two suitors and their marriage proposals, terrified by the Brotherhood's hatred and disgust of girls and women, and frustrated at the necessity to wait for the second book in the Cahill Witch Chronicles to learn what becomes of the sisters.

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Margaret Fuller - Megan Marshall

Margaret Fuller: A New American Life - Marshall, Megan

Summary: Provides a portrait of Thoreau's editor and Emerson's friend, who was also a daring war correspondent and a crusader for women's rights who had a passion for her life's work, which was eclipsed by tragedy and scandal after her death at the age of forty.



Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* "The mind has a light of its own," wrote Margaret Fuller, and the radiance of her inner world vitalizes Marshall's profoundly simpatico portrait of this path-breaking feminist and courageous journalist and writer. Marshall encountered Fuller while working on her acclaimed first book, The Peabody Sisters (2005), and she inhabits Fuller's dramatic, oft-told story with unique intimacy by virtue of her fluency in and judicious quoting of Fuller's extraordinarily vivid letters. Marshall conveys Fuller's "passionate intensity," "unusual intellect and outsized personality," "expansive sympathy," and extraordinary valor as she illuminates family struggles, social obstacles, and private heartache in conjunction with each phase of Fuller's phenomenal achievements as an innovative teacher, lecturer, and editor. Marshall brings stirring historical and psychological insights to Fuller's complicated relationship with Emerson and the other transcendentalists, her journey west and response to the horrific plight of Native Americans, her gripping dispatches on social ills as a front-page columnist for Horace Greeley's New York Tribune, and her triumphs in Europe as "America's first female foreign correspondent." How spectacularly detailed and compassionate Marshall's chronicle is of Fuller's scandalous love for an Italian soldier, the birth of their son, her heroic coverage of the 1849 siege of Rome, and her and her family's tragic deaths when their ship wrecks in sight of the American coast. A magnificent biography of a revolutionary thinker, witness, and writer.

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Half a Chance - Cynthia Lord

Half a Chance - Lord, Cynthia

Summary: Lucy, with her mother and her photographer father, has just moved to a small rural community in New Hampshire, and with her new friend Nate she plans to spend the summer taking photos for a contest, but pictures sometimes reveal more than people are willing to see.



Horn Book Guide Reviews
When twelve-year-old Lucy enters a photography contest, she must decide whether to submit a picture of her new friend Nate's grandmother, whose life has become punctuated with moments of dementia and confusion. Nate is horrified by his grandmother's panicked expression, but Lucy knows it's an amazing picture. The story is moving, and readers will find themselves caught up in sensitive Lucy's honest and thoughtful narration.

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Moonrise kingdom (DVD)

Moonrise kingdom (DVD)

Summary: Set on an island off the coast of New England in the summer of 1965, tells the story of two twelve-year-olds who fall in love, make a secret pact, and run away together into the wilderness. As various authorities try to hunt them down, a violent storm is brewing off-shore, and the peaceful island community is turned upside down in more ways than anyone can handle.

Video Librarian Reviews
Perhaps because of their dry, whimsical, bittersweet wistfulness, Wes Anderson's eccentric films (including The Royal Tenenbaums, and The Fantastic Mr. Fox) are often a breath of cinematic fresh air. On an idyllic island off New England's Narragansett Bay in September 1965, two alienated, rebellious 12-year-olds fall in love and decide to run away together. Orphaned outcast Sam Shakusky (Jared Gilman) is tired of being bullied by Khaki Scout Troop 55 at Camp Ivanhoe, while sullen Suzy Bishop (Kara Hayward) peers through binoculars, eager to escape from her younger brothers, morose father Walt (Bill Murray) and harried mother Laura (Frances McDormand), who is having an affair with the local sheriff, Captain Sharp (Bruce Willis). As intrepid, idealistic Sam and Suzy hike through the rolling fields and craggy ravines—following a Native American harvest migration trail, and setting up their sanctuary camp on a deserted beach by a magical cove that they dub Moonrise Kingdom—a violent storm is brewing off-shore. Meanwhile, their alarming absence initiates an exhaustive search by the colorfully caricatured adults: Sharp, Scout Master Ward (Edward Norton), and a woman known only as Social Services (Tilda Swinton). Like Benjamin Britten's The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra—often referenced here—Anderson creates distinctive component parts which are then artfully blended into a winning whole. Highly recommended. Editor's Choice. (S. Granger)Copyright Video Librarian Reviews 2011.

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Old school - Tobias Wolff

Old school: a novel - Wolff, Tobias

Summary: During his senior year at an elite New England prep school, a young man who had struggled to find it with his contemporaries finds his life unraveling thanks to the school's obsession with literary figures and their work during a visit from an author for whose blessing a young writer would do almost anything. By the author of This Boy's Life. A first novel. 40,000 first printing. - (Baker & Taylor)

Booklist Reviews
/*Starred Review*/ There are ways to lie without saying a word. It is 1960, and the narrator is beginning his final year at a private school of strong literary traditions. Aspiring writers edit the literary journal and compete to win private audiences with visiting luminaries of letters. This year, the guests are to be Robert Frost, Ayn Rand, and Ernest Hemingway. The narrator is a scholarship student, and though his school prides itself on class blindness, his classmates are well versed in spotting the subtle indicators of economic background. Longing to fit in, he dissembles, cultivating an "easy disregard" by which he hopes to imply his own privilege. But this doubleness leads him toward an unexpected decision with far-reaching consequences for his future. While a main theme here is a writer's growth, the work's essential component, the forming of character, gives it a universal appeal. As our storyteller grows through his identification with and understanding of important books, and learns the importance of writing honestly, he also learns that to insist too adamantly on the truth may require the individual to stand apart from even the group he loves. Wolff, acclaimed for his short stories and memoirs, has written a marvelous novel with resonance for old and young alike. His storytelling is economical, his prose is elegant, and his meditations are utterly timeless. Some readers may wish to turn from the last page to the first and begin again. ((Reviewed September 1, 2003)) Copyright 2003 Booklist Reviews

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A prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving

A prayer for Owen Meany - Irving, John

Summary: In the summer of 1953, two 11-year-old boys--best friends--are playing in a Little League baseball game in New Hampshire. One of the boys hits a foul ball that kills his best friend's mother. Owen Meany believes he didn't hit the ball by accident. He believes he is God's instrument. What happens to Owen after 1953 is extraordinary and terrifying. He is Irving's most heartbreaking hero.

Library Journal Reviews
Diminutive Owen Meaney, the social outcast with the high, pinched voice, has an enormous influence on his friend Johnny Wheelwright--not least because the only baseball Owen ever hits causes the death of Johnny's mother. But as Johnny claims, ``Owen gave me more than he ever took from me. . . . What did he ever say that wasn't right?'' Spookily prescient, convinced that he is an instrument of God, Owen intimidates child and adult alike. Why Johnny ``is a Christian because of Owen Meaney'' is the novel's central mystery but not its only one: Who, for instance, was Johnny's father? Untangling these knots, the adult Johnny pauses to consider his religious convictions and distaste of American politics in passages that are neither especially persuasive nor effectively integrated into the book. And though Owen is a compelling presence, his power over others is not entirely convincing. Still, readers will be drawn in by the story of the boys' friendship and by the desire to see some resolution to Johnny's mysteries.-- Barbara Hoffert, ``Library Journal'' Copyright 1989 Cahners Business Information.

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Little women - Louisa May Alcott

Little women - Louisa May Alcott

Summary: Chronicles the joys and sorrows of the four March sisters as they grow into young women in mid-nineteenth-century New England.

Little Women is one of the best loved books of all time. Lovely Meg, talented Jo, frail Beth, spoiled Amy: these are hard lessons of poverty and of growing up in New England during the Civil War. Through their dreams, plays, pranks, letters, illnesses, and courtships, women of all ages have become a part of this remarkable family and have felt the deep sadness when Meg leaves the circle of sisters to be married at the end of Part I. Part II, chronicles Meg's joys and mishaps as a young wife and mother, Jo's struggle to become a writer, Beth's tragedy, and Amy's artistic pursuits and unexpected romance. Based on Louise May Alcott's childhood, this lively portrait of nineteenth-century family life possesses a lasting vitality that has endeared it to generations of readers.

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Ethan Frome - Edith Wharton

Ethan Frome - Wharton, Edith

Summary: Ethan Frome works his unproductive farm and struggles to maintain a bearable existence with his difficult, suspicious, and hypochondriac wife, Zeenie. But when Zeenie’s vivacious cousin enters their household as a "hired girl," Ethan finds himself obsessed with her and with the possibilities for happiness she comes to represent.

In one of American fiction’s finest and most intense narratives, Edith Wharton moves this ill-starred trio toward their tragic destinies. Different in both tone and theme from Wharton’s other works, Ethan Frome has become perhaps her most enduring and most widely read novel.

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The sisters from Hardscrabble Bay - Beverly Jensen

The sisters from Hardscrabble Bay - Jensen, Beverly

Summary: A sequence of tales chronicling the early 20th-century lives of New Brunswick sisters Idella and Avis Hillock includes "Gone," an account of their mother's heartbreaking childbirth crisis and the Pushcart Prize-nominated "Wake," in which they attend their wild father's funeral. - (Baker & Taylor)

Staff Review
I really enjoyed this tale of sisters Avis and Idella and the world as it progresses around them. Great characters and dialogue. A lovely book. The fact that the author died before seeing her only book get published makes it all the more bittersweet.

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