June 2009

• The Killing Circle -- Andrew Pyper

A would-be novelist joins a creative writing group and unwittingly becomes part of another writer's plot. A rather disappointing mystery story.

• A Cold Day for Murder -- Dana Stabenow

Kate Shugak comes out of retirement to help the Ancorage DA's office and the FBI find a park ranger who mysteriously disappeared from one of the largest wilderness areas of the Alaskan north.

• City of Ember -- Jeanne DuPrau

The city of Ember was built as the last refuge for the human race. Two hundred years later, 12-year-old Lina Mayfield and her classmate Doon Harrow believe the lights of their city will be forever extinguished. They find a lost message that could save them all. (YA)

• The Westing Game -- Ellen Raskin

An eccentric millionaire, Sam Westing, gathers together a motley group of unlikely heirs to follow the instructions of his will. Paired into groups, they try to figure out which one of them murdered their "Uncle Sam." (YA)

• Dust -- Arthur Slade

Eleven-year-old Robert Steelgate is not fooled by the odd looking stranger that appears in his town shortly after the disappearance of Robert's younger brother. Promising rain to the drought weary farmers in Depression-era Saskatchewan, Abram Harsich, is not what he seems. (YA)

• The Penderwicks -- Jane Birdsall

The four Penderwick sisters, Rosalind, Skye, Jane and Batty, liven up the neighborhood when they, their widowed father, and their dog Hound, rent a cottage in a small town in Massachusetts. (8-12 yr olds)

• The Last Dickens -- Matthew Pearl

The Mystery of Edwin Drood is only half completed when Charles Dickens dies. With a public mad for installments, and lots of money to be made, rival publishers attempt to find, or create, the missing chapters. A very satisfying, Dickens-worthy, historical fiction/mystery.

• Brooklyn -- Colm Toibin

Eilis Lacey is given the opportunity to leave her small Irish town for a good paying job in Brooklyn, New York. Despite her homesickness and trying situations in a new land, Eilish does well. She takes night courses in bookkeeping and unexpectedly falls in love. Tragedy back home forces her to make a decision about the course of her life.

• Still Alice -- Lisa Genova

Renowned Harvard linguistics professor Alice Howland is only 50 when she is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease. Her downward spiral is quick and has devastating impact on Alice, her husband and her three grown children.