Books

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This Month's Pick: Next to Love

Experience sorrow and hopefulness with three childhood friends whose lives are upended by World War II when their husbands go off to fight. You'll feel deeply for these characters--and realize that the devestation war wreaks on families never changes.

Read an Excerpt

Past Picks

Bitter in the Mouth

Linda Hammerick suffers from a condition known as synesthesia: The sound of a word triggers a taste. Her own name evokes mint; her childhood crush's, the taste of orange sherbet. But for Linda, coming of age in the '70s Deep South, this peculiar syndrome is only one of the ways in which she feels like an outsider -- and this sense of alienation follows her into adulthood. When a family tragedy pulls her back home, Linda uncovers the truth about her personal history. Provocative and poignant, this is a novel to savor.

I Think I Love You

He was no Elvis, but try telling that to the millions of teen girls around the world who worshipped David Cassidy in the '70s. I Think I Love You is the story one such fan: Petra, a 13-year-old promising cellist living in South Wales in 1974.You'll care deeply about this dreamy, besotted girl and the woman she becomes, and you'll cheer when she gets the happy ending she deserves.

The Widower's Tale

Seventy-year-old Percy Darling is settling happily into retirement: reading novels, but his routines are disrupted, when he is persuaded to let a locally beloved preschool take over his barn. No longer can he remain aloof from his community, his two grown daughters, or, to his shock, the precarious joy of falling in love.

The Bird Sisters

This debut novel, which follows the lives of spinster sisters Milly and Twiss, is full of hope and beauty, heartbreak and sacrifice, and offers wonderful surprises at every turn.

Revenge of the Radioactive Lady

Marylou Ahearn is going to kill Dr. Wilson Spriggs come hell or high water. In 1953, the good doctor gave her a radioactive cocktail without her consent, and Marylou has been plotting her revenge ever since. Find out what happens in this month's darkly funny pick.