Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane

I read Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane which was currently released as a feature film with Leonardo DiCaprio. An investigative thriller where the main characters delve into radical approaches in psychiatry and nothing is what it seems to be. There are lots of secrets on Shutter Island and no one escapes.

Recommended by Michele, Collection Development:

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters is a captivating 1940's British tale of a deceptively haunted English manor brimming with rich landscapes, atmospheric settings and psychological complexity. A country doctor is called to Hundreds Hall a declining mansion with three lonely residents unknowingly innocent of the role he will play in the lives of the three and in the outcome Hundreds Hall has for him as he not only answers the call to the sick patient but to the house as well.

Recommended by Michele, Collection Development:

Little Bird of Heaven by Joyce Carol Oates

What I enjoyed about her novel were the female characters insights into their own behaviors while so many of their situations influenced solely by men and listening to their thoughts, watching their reactions was a highlight for me. What I did not appreciate about the writing was the pervasive violent male personas, the flow of the storytelling (repetitive), and the gray shroud enveloping the entire story. However, the tiny bright spot providing a relief of sorts from the gloomy grayness was the ending. I have to admit I was happy to find one character at the beginning of her life instead of trapped by it.

The Styx by Jonathon King

This vividly descriptive mystery dating back to 1890 brings the reader back in time when the rich and greedy began to change the landscape of south Florida. Using their wealth to "grab a piece of Eden" they turned out those whose claims to the land were no match for the advantaged, moneyed affluent northerners'. "The greenness of the place washed over Byrne. The coastal shrubs, the hotel's manicured lawns in the distance, all ringed by aqua-colored water that itself seemed to take on a tinge of green…men in clean summer suits, women draped in long dresses of white, they had all gauzed their skin from the sun's touch: the hats, long sleeves, the veils." And so this tale of the deceptively beautiful ruling class amidst the swaying palms of a new Palm Beach created by robber barons and real estate deals touches upon the murder, cover-ups and racism of an era bent on greed.

Recommended by Maureen, Circulation:

John Lennon: the Life by Philip Norman

It is one of the most comprehensive biographies on John Lennon. It covers Lennon's life from his family's history before his birth to his death. Norman provides great insight into the life of this rock legend and his music.

Peace Like a River by Leif Enger

Eleven-year-old asthmatic Reuben Land chronicles the Land family's odyssey in search of Reuben's older brother, Davy, who has escaped from jail before he can stand trial for the killing of two marauders who came to their Minnesota farm to harm the family.

Recommended by Peggy, Circulation:

The Wayward Bus by John Steinbeck

The ambitions, dreams, failings, and innermost thoughts of a diverse group of passengers are revealed as they travel aboard a bus along the backroads of California.

Recommended by Dennis, Library Page:

The Big Lebowski (DVD)

"The Dude" Lebowski is mistaken for another Lebowski who is rich and owes some thugs a lot of money. After Dude comes home one day to find that the thugs have broken in and ruined his favorite carpet, he vows to get even.

Recommended by Randi, Library Page:

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Ninety-something-year-old Jacob Jankowski remembers his time in the circus as a young man during the Great Depression, and his friendship with Marlena, the star of the equestrian act, and Rosie, the elephant, who gave them hope.

Recommended by Camille, Library Page:

The Long Walk by Stephen King

In a futuristic America ruled by ultraconservatives, one hundred of the nation's hardiest boys must endure a five-hundred-mile marathon race known as the Long Walk, a lethal contest of determination and endurance in which each tortured step becomes a harrowing struggle for survival, in order to win fame and fortune.

Recommended by Ann, Collection Development:

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly

In central Texas in 1899, eleven-year-old Callie Vee Tate learns about love from the older three of her six brothers and studies the natural world with her grandfather which leads to an important discovery.

Ann says "I loved this book!"

Recommended by Wanda, Collection Development:

Split Image by Robert B. Parker

What initially appears to be a low-level mob hit takes on new meaning when a high-ranking crime figure is found dead on Paradise Beach. Jesse Stone and private investigator Sunny Randall team up to solve two cases involving the gunshot murder of Petrov Ognowski and a religious cult holding an 18-year-old girl against her will.

Recommended by Gloria, Library Page:

Abandoned on a 1913 voyage to Australia, Nell is raised by a dock master and his wife who do not tell her until she grows up that she is not their child, a situation that causes her to return to England and eventually hand down her quest for answers to her granddaughter.

Recommended by Helen, Collection Development:

Loving Frank by Nancy Horan

Fact and fiction blend in a historical novel that chronicles the relationship between seminal architect Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Cheney, from their meeting, when they were each married to another, to the clandestine affair that shocked Chicago society.

Recommended by Helen, Collection Development:

Back to the Coast by Saskia Noort

A young singer with money problems and two children from failed relationships seeks an abortion and is soon plagued with problems.

Recommended by Helen, Collection Development:

In 1940s Chicago, fifteen-year-old Ruby hopes to escape poverty by becoming a taxi dancer in a nightclub, but the work has unforeseen dangers and hiding the truth from her family and friends becomes increasingly difficult.

Recommended by Helen, Collection Development:

Lily Dale: Awakening by Wendi Corsi Staub

When seventeen-year-old Calla's mother suddenly dies, she goes to stay with her psychic grandmother in Lily Dale, a spiritualist community in western New York, where she discovers some disconcerting secrets about her practical, down-to-earth mother, and realizes that she herself may also have some psychic abilities.

Recommended by Kris, Library Page:

Dragon Bones by Lisa See

When the body of an American archaeologist is found floating in the Yangzi River, Ministry of Public Security agent Liu Hulan and her husband, American attorney David Stark, are dispatched to Site 518 to investigate. As Hulan scrutinizes his death, David, on behalf of the National Relics Bureau, tries to discover who has stolen from the site an artifact that may prove to the world China's claim that it is the oldest uninterrupted civilization on earth.

Recommended by Kris, Library Page:

The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova

Psychiatrist Andrew Marlowe, devoted to his profession and the painting hobby he loves, has a solitary but ordered life. When renowned painter Robert Oliver attacks a canvas in the National Gallery of Art and becomes his patient, Marlow finds that order destroyed. Desperate to understand the secret that torments the genius, he embarks on a journey that leads him into the lives of the women closest to Oliver and a tragedy at the heart of French Impressionism.

Recommended by Kris, Library Page:

Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman

For years, 12-year-old CeeCee Honeycutt has been the caretaker of her psychotic mother, Camille-the tiara-toting, lipstick-smeared laughingstock of an entire town. But when Camille is hit by a truck and killed, CeeCee is left to fend for herself. To the rescue comes her previously unknown great-aunt from Savannah, Tootie Caldwell, who whirls CeeCee into her world of female friendship, strong women, wacky humor, and good old-fashioned heart.

Recommended by Kris, Library Page:

The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths

Assisting with the investigation of bones found near England's Saltmarsh region, archaeologist Ruth Galloway discovers that the remains are bizarrely linked to a case involving a disturbed anonymous letter-writer and a missing child.

Recommended by Rose, Youth Services:

Isaac's Storm: a Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History by Erik Larson

In 1900, Isaac Monroe Cline was in charge of the Galveston station of the U.S. Weather Bureau. When he heard the deep thudding waves on Galveston's beach in the early morning of September 8th, however, Cline refused to be alarmed.

Recommended by Lindy, Youth Services:

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia

In a small South Carolina town, where it seems little has changed since the Civil War, sixteen-year-old Ethan is powerfully drawn to Lena, a new classmate with whom he shares a psychic connection and whose family hides a dark secret that may be revealed on her sixteenth birthday.

Recommended by Lindy, Youth Services:

Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah

Inseparable best friends Kate and Tully, two young women who, despite their very different lives, have vowed to be there for each other forever, have been true to their promise for thirty years, until events and choices in their lives tear them apart.

Recommended by Lindy, Youth Services:

Winter Garden Kristin Hannah

The dying wish of a loving father ignites a family drama that brings two sisters and their acid-tongued, Russian-born mother together in a story that reaches back to WWII Leningrad.

Recommended by Lindy, Youth Services:

The Help by Katheryn Stockett

In Jackson, Mississippi, in 1962, there are lines that are not crossed. With the civil rights movement exploding all around them, three women start a movement of their own, forever changing a town and the way women--black and white, mothers and daughters--view one another.

Recommended by Allison, Circulation:

Post Office by Charles Bukowski

By middle age, Henry Chinaski has lost more than twelve years of his life to the U.S. Postal Service. In a world where his three true, bitter pleasures are women, booze, and racetrack betting, he somehow drags his hangover out of bed every dawn to lug waterlogged mailbags up mud-soaked mountains, outsmart vicious guard dogs, and pray to survive the day-to-day trials of sadistic bosses and certifiable coworkers.