-
-
2015., Adult, Pantheon Books Call No: Fic Cim Edition: 1st ed. Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: It's the summer of 2015, Brooklyn. The city is sweltering from another record-breaking heat wave, this one accompanied by biblical rains. Edith, a recently retired legal librarian, and her identical twin sister, Kat, a feckless romantic who's mistaken her own eccentricity for originality, discover something ominous in their hall closet: it seems to be phosphorescent, it's a mushroom... and it's sprouting from their wall. Upstairs, their landlady, Vida Cebu, a Shakespearian actress far more famous for her TV commercials for Ziberax (the first female sexual enhancement pill) than for her stage work, discovers that a petite Russian girl, a runaway au pair, has been secretly living in her guest room closet. When the police arrest the intruder, they find a second mushroom, also glowing, under the intruder's bedding. Soon the HAZMAT squad arrives, and the four women are forced to evacuate the contaminated row house with only the clothes on their backs. As the mold infestation spreads from row house to high-rise, and frightened, bewildered New Yorkers wait out this plague (is it an act of God?) on their city and property, the four women become caught up in a centrifugal nightmare. Part horror story, part screwball comedy, Jill Ciment's brilliant suspense novel looks at what happens when our lives--so seemingly set and ordered yet so precariously balanced--break down in the wake of calamity. It is, as well, a novel about love (familial and profound) and how it can appear from the most unlikely circumstances.
-
-
c2010., Adult, Pedlar Press Call No: Fic Pow Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: "Blood Relatives tells the story of Charlie, a down-on-his-luck thirty-one year old office cleaner, whose life, since the death of his father, is out of control. Darkly comic in intent, at times hilarious, at other times unnerving, Blood Relatives creates an utterly believable fictional world that turns the conventions of the coming-of-age novel inside out."--Publisher.
-
-
2012., Little, Brown & Co. Call No: Fic Row Edition: 1st ed. Availability:2 of 2 At Your Library Summary Note: When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties, the town of Pagford is left in shock and the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen.
-
-
2012., Hachette Audio Call No: CD Fic Row Edition: 1st ed. Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties, the town of Pagford is left in shock and the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen.
![The casual vacancy [CD]](/Library/images/~imageCT75385.JPG "The casual vacancy [CD]")
-
-
2010., Adult, Farrar, Straus and Giroux Call No: Fic Kei Edition: 1st ed. Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: A penetrating study of ordinary people resisting the Nazi occupation--and, true to its title, a dark comedy of wartime manners--Comedy in a Minor Key tells the story of Wim and Marie, a Dutch couple who first hide a Jew they know as Nico, then must dispose of his body when he dies of pneumonia. This novella, first published in 1947 and now translated into English for the first time, shows Hans Keilson at his best: deeply ironic, penetrating, sympathetic, and brilliantly modern, an heir to Joseph Roth and Franz Kafka.
-
-
2013., General, Harper Call No: SC Fic Odo Edition: First ed. Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: Trying to keep the death of their parents a secret, Marnie and her little sister Nelly are on their own until several residents in Glasgow's Hazelhurst housing estate suspect that something is not right.
-
-
c2010., Doubleday Call No: MYS Fic Lin Edition: 1st ed. Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Series Title: Dexter novels Volume: 5Summary Note: Serial killer Dexter Morgan reevaluates his life views upon the birth of his daughter and investigates the disappearance of a teenage girl who has been running with a group of goths rumored to be engaging in cannibalism.
-
-
c2010., Adult, Random House Canada Call No: Fic Ena Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: "When a humanitarian catastrophe strikes Nigeria, an unforgettable cast of Machiavellian opportunists and quixotic do-gooders swoop in to make the most of the tragedy. This is a stand-out debut novel, a dark comedy, that perfectly captures Naomi Klein's "disaster capitalism," cutthroat office politics, vicious sibling rivalry, and the making of water into a corporate venture. Carole Enahoro shares her time between Canada, Britain, and Nigeria."--Publisher.
-
-
c2011., Adult, Doubleday Call No: MYS Fic Lin Edition: 1st ed. Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Series Title: Dexter novels Volume: 6Summary Note: "Dexter Morgan is not your average serial killer. He enjoys his day job as a blood spatter analyst for the Miami Police Department . . . but he lives for his nighttime hobby of hunting other killers. Dexter is therefore not pleased to discover that someone is shadowing him, observing him, and copying his methods. Dexter is not one to tolerate displeasure . . . in fact, he has a knack for extricating himself from trouble in his own pleasurable way. Like the previous five best-selling novels in the Dexter series, Double Dexter showcases the witty, macabre originality that has propelled Jeff Lindsay to international success. Double Dexter is raucously entertaining . . . full of smart suspense and dark laughs."--Publisher.
-
-
2016., Adult, Alfred A. Knopf Call No: Fic Rus Edition: 1st ed. Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: "Richard Russo, at the very top of his game, now returns to North Bath, in upstate New York, and the characters who made Nobody's Fool (1993) a 'confident, assured novel [that] sweeps the reader up,' according to the San Francisco Chronicle back then. 'Simple as family love, yet nearly as complicated.' Or, as The Boston Globe put it, 'a big, rambunctious novel with endless riffs and unstoppable human hopefulness.' The irresistible Sully, who in the intervening years has come by some unexpected good fortune, is staring down a VA cardiologist's estimate that he has only a year or two left, and it's hard work trying to keep this news from the most important people in his life: Ruth, the married woman he carried on with for years... the ultra-hapless Rub Squeers, who worries that he and Sully aren't still best friends... Sully's son and grandson, for whom he was mostly an absentee figure (and now a regretful one). We also enjoy the company of Doug Raymer, the chief of police who's obsessing primarily over the identity of the man his wife might've been about to run off with, before dying in a freak accident... Bath's mayor, the former academic Gus Moynihan, whose wife problems are, if anything, even more pressing... and then there's Carl Roebuck, whose lifelong run of failing upward might now come to ruin. And finally, there's Charice Bond--a light at the end of the tunnel that is Chief Raymer's office--as well as her brother, Jerome, who might well be the train barreling into the station. Everybody's Fool is filled with humor, heart, hard times and people you can't help but love, possibly because their various faults make them so stridently human. This is classic Russo--and a crowning achievement from one of the greatest storytellers of our time."--Publisher.
-
-
c2010., Adolescent, HarperCollins Call No: Fic Fra Edition: 1st Canadian ed. Availability:2 of 2 At Your Library Summary Note: The idyllic lives of civic-minded environmentalists Patty and Walter Berglund come into question when their son moves in with aggressive Republican neighbors, green lawyer Walter takes a job in the coal industry, and go-getter Patty becomes increasingly unstable and enraged.
-
-
c2015., Adult, Cormorant Books Call No: Fic Col Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: All former major league baseball player Zep Baker needs to put his life back on track is to revive his marriage by convincing his wife to return to Tampa with their daughter. But his wife won't fall for his pleading or his old tricks. He needs a new game plan. Enter Hope, a neuroscience researcher who he persuades to help him in this endeavour. The resulting life-experiment takes both characters to places they did not foresee and for which they are not prepared.
-
-
2019., Alfred A. Knopf Call No: Fic Coe Edition: First American Edition. Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: "From the acclaimed author of The Rotters' Club and The Closed Circle comes the novel for our strange contemporary times. Beginning nine years ago on the outskirts of Birmingham, where car factories have been replaced by chain retail, and London, where both frenzied riots and Olympic fever plague the streets, Middle England tracks a brilliantly vivid cast of characters through the transformation of their society. There are newlyweds Ian and Sophie, who disagree about England's future and, possibly, their relationship; Doug, the political commentator who writes impassioned columns about austerity from his Chelsea townhouse while his radical, teenage daughter undertakes a relentless quest for universal justice; Benjamin Trotter, who embarks on an apparently doomed new career in middle age, and his father Colin, whose last wish is to vote LEAVE in the Brexit referendum. Through all these lives we see this very tentatively united kingdom itself: a place of nostalgia and delusion, bewilderment and barely suppressed rage. As acutely alert to the absurdity of the political classes as it is compassionate about those left behind by elites of all sorts, this is a novel only Jonathan Coe could have written"--
-
-
2012., Adult, Coach House Books Call No: Fic Str Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: Milo doesn't quite have it all together. His acting career has stalled. His Latvian girlfriend dumped him. His miserable father has vanished. And Pablo and Wallace - and then Wallace's mother too - seem to have moved in to his house. Really, the only person Milo likes is Robertson, the autistic eleven-year-old who lives next door. So when Robertson gets bullied and his dad moves out, Milo is finally spurred to action. Milo being Milo, though, even his best intentions go awry, and soon Robertson's dad is in the hospital, Milo's lost in the woods during an acting experiment, and Gustaw, his dad, may have returned from the dead.
-
-
2013., New Harvest Call No: MYS Fic Gor Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: Taking a job as an assistant to housebound detective Solar Lonsky, failed Los Angeles novelist Sam Kornberg tackles an assignment to track a mysterious woman in a case marked by sexy doppelgangers, mental asylums, and video-store geekery.
-
-
2023., Adult, Dutton Call No: Fic Hua Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: "In this sly, surprising, and razor-sharp debut novel, a virtuoso pianist gives up her future as a musician to work at a high-end wellness store in New York City where the pursuit of beauty comes at a staggering cost. Our narrator is the youngest student at the Conservatory. She produces a sound from the piano no one else does, employing a special technique she learned from her parents--also stunningly talented musicians--who fled China in the wake of the Cultural Revolution. But when an accident leaves her parents debilitated, she abandons her future as a pianist and accepts a job at a high-end beauty and wellness store in New York City. Holistik is known for its remarkable products and outrageous procedures: remoras that suck cheap Botox from the body, eyelash extensions made of spider silk, emotional support ducklings bred to imprint on their owners. Every product is ethically sourced and made with nothing but the highest quality ingredients. Our narrator's new job is a coveted one among New York's beauty-obsessed, and it affords her entry into a new world of privilege. She becomes transfixed by Helen--a model, and the niece of Holistik's charismatic owner--and the two strike up a close friendship that hazily veers into more. All the while, Holistik plies our narrator with products that slim her thighs, smooth her skin, lighten her hair, and change her eye color. But beneath these fancy creams and tinctures lies a terrible truth that threatens to consume her. After all, beauty is nothing without ugliness. NATURAL BEAUTY is a piercing, terrifying, and darkly funny debut that eviscerates the beauty and wellness industry, exploring questions of consumerism, self-worth, race, and identity. This propulsive novel takes a world that feels familiar and pushes it to a conclusion that at first might seem jarring, but when we inch closer, settles on us as truth"--
-
-
c2010., Adult, McClelland & Stewart Call No: Fic Col Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: "In his first two, Governor General-shortlisted novels, Trevor Cole proved himself a master of drawing us into the shadowy side of human nature with sharp observation and warm wit. In PRACTICAL JEAN, he goes a step further: this is a deeply humorous and revelatory tale of an ordinary, small-town woman with the usual challenges of middle age - a do-nothing husband, a family that refuses to understand her - who realizes her fondest wish is to protect her dearest friends from the indignities of aging and illness. And that's when she decides to kill them!"--Publisher.
-
-
By Sharma, Jade2016., Adult, Coffee House Press Call No: Fic Sha Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: "Dark, raw, and very funny, [this book] introduces us to Maya, a young woman with a smart mouth, time to kill, and a heroin hobby that isn't much fun anymore. Maya's been able to get by in New York on her wits and a dead-end bookstore job for years, but when her husband leaves her and her favorite professor ends their affair, her barely-calibrated life descends into chaos, and she has to make some choices. Maya's struggle to be alone, to be a woman, and to be thoughtful and imperfect and alive in a world that doesn't really care what happens to her is rendered with dead-eyed clarity and unnerving charm. This book takes every tired trope about addiction and recovery, "likeable" characters, and redemption narratives, and blows them to pieces"--Amazon.com.
-
-
-- Under major domo minorc2015., Adult, House of Anansi Press Call No: Fic deW Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: Lucien (Lucy) Minor is the resident odd duck in the hamlet of Bury. Friendless and loveless, young and aimless, Lucy is a compulsive liar, a sickly weakling in a town famous for begetting brutish giants. Then Lucy accepts a job assisting the majordomo of the remote, foreboding Castle Von Aux. While tending to his new post, he soon discovers the place harbours many dark secrets, not least of which is the whereabouts of the castle's master, Baron Von Aux. Thus begins a tale of polite theft, bitter heartbreak, domestic mystery, and cold-blooded murder. Undermajordomo Minor is a triumphant ink-black comedy of manners by the Governor General's Award-winning author of "The Sisters Brothers". It is an adventure, and a mystery, and a searing portrayal of rural Alpine bad behaviour, but above all it is a love story. And Lucy must be careful, for love is a violent thing.
