New Leisure Books

Updated November 17, 2009

Batter off dead : a Pennsylvania Dutch mystery with recipes
By: Tamar Myers
Summary: During a church breakfast, Minerva J. Jay, known for her prodigious appetite, slumps over after ingesting several stacks of pancakes. Police Chief Chris Ackerman wonders if the serving of the fatal flapjacks is a case of assault and batter.
Subjects: Mystery fiction. - Yoder, Magdalena (Fictitious character) Fiction.
Girl in a blue dress : a novel inspired by the life and marriage of Charles Dickens
By: Gaynor Arnold
Summary: "In creating my [the author's] own story of Alfred and Dorothea Gibson, I have taken a novelist's liberties as I explored an imaginative path through their relationship. . . . Inspired by "threads of Dickens's own preoccupations with things strange, romantic, and melodramatic rather than realistic ... at times, characters from his novels make a transmuted appearance as characters in his life. ... Above all, in Dorothea Gibson I have tried to give voice to the largely voiceless Catherine Dickens, who once requested that her letters from her husband be preserved so that 'the world may know he loved me once.' " -- Author's note.
Subjects: Authors' spouses Fiction. - Domestic fiction. - Authors, English Family relationships Fiction. - Widows Fiction.
Heat wave
By: Richard Castle
Summary: Tough and sexy New York police detective Nikki Heat leads the investigation into the death of a New York real estate tycoon who plunged to his death on a Manhattan sidewalk. She's hit with an unexpected challenge when the commissioner assigns superstar magazine journalist Jameson Rook to ride along with her to research an article on New York's Finest.
Subjects: Mystery fiction. - Man-woman relationships Fiction. - Detective and mystery stories. - Women detectives New York (State) New York Fiction. - Murder Investigation New York (State) New York Fiction. - Journalists New York (State) New York Fiction.
Her fearful symmetry : a novel
By: Audrey Niffenegger
Summary: When Elspeth Noblin dies, she leaves everything to the 20-year-old American twin daughters of her own long-estranged twin, Edie. Valentina and Julia, as enmeshed as Elspeth and Edie once were, move into Elspeth's London flat and through a series of developing relationships a crisis develops that could pull the twins apart.
Subjects: Sisters Fiction. - Ghost stories. - Spiritual life Fiction. - Psychological fiction.
Hothouse orchid
By: Stuart Woods
Summary: Special Agent Holly Barker returns to her hometown of Orchid Beach, Florida, and faces off against an old nemesis--the man she brought charges against for sexual harassment, attempted rape, and rape. The army officer in question was acquitted of all charges, and is now Orchid Beach's new police chief. Will Holly return to the CIA? Or will she challenge her old nemesis for control of the Orchid Beach Police Department?
Subjects: Barker, Holly (Fictitious character) Fiction. - Suspense fiction. - Intelligence officers Fiction. - Police Florida Fiction. - Police chiefs Fiction.
Inherent vice
By: Thomas Pynchon
Summary: Reluctantly investigating a kidnapping threat against his ex-girlfriend's billionaire beau, Doc Sportello tackles a bizarre tangle of nefarious characters before stumbling on a mysterious entity that may actually be a tax shelter for a dental group.
Subjects: Noir fiction. - Private investigators Fiction. - Experimental fiction.
Lacuna : a novel
By: by Barbara Kingsolver
Summary: "The story of Harrison William Shepherd, a man caught between two worlds -- Mexico and the United States in the 1930s, '40s, and '50s -- and whose search for identity takes readers to the heart of the twentieth century's most tumultuous events"--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Biographical fiction. - Subversive activities Fiction. - Americans Mexico Fiction. - Historical fiction. - Identity (Psychology) Fiction. - Epistolary fiction.
Last night in twisted river : a novel
By: John Irving
Subjects: Teenage boys Fiction. - Fathers and sons Fiction. - Fugitives from justice Fiction. - Loggers Fiction.
Quilter's holiday
By: Jennifer Chiaverini
Summary: For the Elm Creek Quilters, the day after Thanksgiving marks the start of the quilting season, a time to gather at Elm Creek Manor and spend the day stitching holiday gifts for loved ones. On this quilter's holiday, Master Quilter Sylvia Bergstrom has invited her friends to continue an old family tradition of sewing quilt blocks representing their thankfulness and gratitude. As each quilter explains the significance of her carefully chosen block, stories of love and longing for family and friends emerge.
Subjects: Quiltmakers Fiction. - Female friendship Fiction. - Quilting Fiction.
Rules of vengeance
By: Christopher Reich
Summary: An ambush on a convoy of limousines turns a romantic rendezvous into a terrorist bloodbath and Doctors Without Borders physician Jonathan Ransom, apprehended by the police and threatened with life imprisonment unless he helps secure his wife Emma's capture, escapes and becomes a spy himself in order to track down Emma and discover the true nature of the conspiracy she appears to be masterminding.
Subjects: Suspense fiction. - Conspiracies Fiction. - Spouses Fiction. - Spy stories. - Physicians Fiction.
Southern lights : a novel
By: Danielle Steel
Subjects: Serial murderers Fiction. - Rich people South Carolina Charleston Fiction. - Mothers and daughters Fiction. - Trials (Murder) Fiction. - Single mothers Fiction. - Public prosecutors New York (State) New York Fiction. - Divorced women Fiction.
Tale of Applebeck Orchard
By: Susan Wittig Albert
Summary: In 1910 Miss Beatrix Potter is able to get away from her parents and goes to her properties in the Land Between the Lakes, Hill Top Farm and Castle Farm, where trouble is brewing in the hamlet. When Mr. Harmsworth barricades the foot path running through his property, Applebeck Farm, claiming he did it because someone lit a fire to his hayloft, and another fire ruins a place of business, Miss Potter is on the case!
Subjects: Women authors Fiction. - Women artists Fiction. - Country life England Fiction. - Mystery fiction.
True blue
By: David Baldacci
Subjects: Revenge Fiction. - Ex-police officers Fiction. - Women ex-convicts Fiction.