ELEGIES FOR THE BROKEN-HEARTED by Christie Hodgen

Born poor in a depressed industrial area in the 1970s, Mary Murphy and her sister are dragged along – and down – by their mother through her serial marriages.  In this uniquely framed and beautifully written novel, Mary delivers elegies to five people who have touched her life;  in doing so, she tells her own story.

TILL I END MY SONG: A Gathering of Last Poems; edited by Harold Bloom

 

Noted scholar and critic Bloom has selected one hundred poems written over the course of four hundred years.  Not all of the included poems are actually the last written by the poets, but all are poems Bloom admires.  Dip into this book, with brief introductory comments accompanying each poem, to revisit old favorites and perhaps find some new ones.

I’D KNOW YOU ANYWHERE by Laura Lippman

 

A woman’s contented life is disrupted when she receives a letter from a man on death row.  He is the serial killer who had held her captive for several weeks when she was a teenager.  How has he found her?  And what does he want?  Terrific psychological suspense from a popular author.

BIO SLOCUM: THE HARD WAY AROUND: The Passages of Joshua Slocum; by Geoffrey Wolff

 

Here is a biography that reads like an adventure story.  Slocum, a master sailor, left Gloucester in 1895 and spent the next three years sailing around the world – alone -  in a 36-foot sailboat.  This wonderful biography tells about his personal as well as maritime adventures, right up until he was last seen off Martha’s Vineyard in 1908.  For all sailing and adventure enthusiasts.

THE DAMAGE DONE by Hilary Davidson

 

 

Travel writer Lily Moore has left New York for Spain, although she still pays the apartment rent for her troubled sister Claudia.  Summoned home after learning that Claudia has drowned in the tub, Lily learns that – you guessed it – the victim isn’t Claudia.  But who is she?  And where is Claudia?  Terrific psychological suspense from a first-time author.

THE AMATEUR HISTORIAN by Julian Cole

 

 

 

Set in York, England, this atmospheric debut novel links the dark stories of two young girls separated by one hundred years:  one died, and now one has been kidnapped by the very disturbed title character.  An appealing private investigator searches for the missing girl, although not without clashing with the Chief Inspector, who happens to be his brother.  

Remember to laugh!

814.54 Ephron, Nora:  I REMEMBER NOTHING AND OTHER REFLECTIONS

The screamingly funny Ephron (I FEEL BAD ABOUT MY NECK) returns with another collection of essays  in which she reviews events in her life and bemoans the aging process.   One example: in  “My Life as a Meatloaf” she relives the ecstasy of having a restaurant’s entree named for her, and the agony of its eventual removal from the menu.  No one does it better.