Bootleggers, Lobstermen, Lumberjacks, Poets, Teachers, and Military Men

Bootleggers, Lobstermen & Lumberjacks: Fifty of the Grittiest Moments in the History of Hanrdscrabble New England by Matthew P. Mayo
The story of New England is built on an endless armature of fascinating tales of Yankee ingenuity and intrepid characters, and this book brings together the top fifty wildest among them -- shipwreck victims surviving any way they could; Indian, pirate, and shark attacks; cougar and bear attacks; and, of course, rum runners and bootleggers doing what they do best.

Ticket to Ride: The Promise of America by Don Hussey
In this unflinchingly honest memoir, military man, public school teacher, successful entrepreneur and candidate for the U.S. Congress Don Hussey describes in rich detail how he outwitted the odds to bring home his "ticket to ride." Trapped in an unending spiral of poverty and abuse, Don left high school as a young teenager to support his mother and younger brother. With uncommon bravery and unyielding determination, he went on to set his own course time and time again. For every obstacle, for every setback, he found a solution and moved on... until one day in 1965 when he was stopped cold in his tracks, confronted by the one accident of fate that no one could ever be prepared for.

The Long Journey Home: A Memoir by Margaret Robinson
First introduced to the world as Augusten Burrough's mother in Running with Scissors, Margaret Robinson now tells her own haunting story, which she began working on long before her son began his memoir. A poet and teacher by profession, Robinson describes her Southern Gothic childhood, her marriage to a handsome, brilliant man who became a split-personality alcoholic and abusive husband, the challenges she faced raising two children while having psychotic breakdowns of her own, and her struggle to regain her sanity.

Vampire Hunters and Cops

Hit List by Laurell K. Hamilton
A serial killer is hunting the Pacific Northwest, murdering victims in a gruesome and spectacular way. The local police suspect "monsters" are involved, and have called in Anita Blake and Edward, U.S. Marshals who really know their monsters, to catch the killer. But some monsters are very real. The Harlequin have been the bogeyman of the vampire world for more than a thousand years; they are a secret so dark that even to speak their name can earn you a death sentence. Now they are here in America, hunting weretigers... and human police.

County Line by Bill Cameron
When the steadfast Ruby Jane Whittaker drops out of sight, dogged ex-cop Skin Kadash sets out to discover what drove the woman he loves to leave her life behind so suddenly and without explanation. The discovery of a dead man in Ruby Jane's apartment and an attack by a mysterious stalker send Skin from Portland to California--and into a charged encounter with her one-time love Peter McKrall. As questions mount and answers grow increasingly out of reach, Skin and Peter cross the country on a desperate journey deep into Ruby Jane's haunted past.

Mysteries!

Murder of a Bookstore Babe by Denise Swanson
Dropping off some old books at Tales and Treats, Skye trips over a toppled bookcase, which has crushed a woman beneath its weight. While the police search for motives, Skye sees the messy aftermath of a half-baked plot to murder somebody else. Skye is juggling her own busy life, but when all clues lead to dead ends, she turns up the heat on her investigation...and stumbles upon the deadly secret that got this bookstore babe done in. And if Skye isn't careful, the killer might just make her the sequel...

Murder Past Due by Miranda James
Everyone in Athena, Mississippi, knows Charlie Harris, the good-natured librarian with a rescued Maine coon cat named Diesel that he walks on a leash. Charlie's returned to his hometown to immerse himself in books, but soon enough he's entangled in a real-life thriller...A famous author of gory bestsellers and a former classmate of Charlie's, Godfrey Priest may be the pride of Athena, but Charlie remembers him as an arrogant, manipulative jerk--and he's not the only one. Godfrey's homecoming couldn't possibly go worse: by lunch, he's put a man in the hospital. And by dinner, Godfrey's dead. Now it's up to Charlie, with some help from Diesel, to paw through the town's grudges and find the killer before an impatient deputy throws the book at the wrong person.

Mad Hatter's Holiday by Peter Lovesey
A keen student of human nature, Albert Moscrop concentrates his interest on one particular family of holidaymakers—the Protheros, and especially the beautiful Zena Prothero, whose husband appears to take her excessively for granted. Gradually Moscrop moves into the circle of the Prothero family, only to become involved in a sensational murder. All Brighton is horrified by the gruesome crime. The local police seek the help of Scotland Yard, which is provided in the persons of Sergeant Cribb and Constable Thackeray. These indomitable detectives soon find themselves challenged by the strangest case of their careers, one that is as mystifying as it is macabre.

Happenstance

The Great Night by Chris Adrian
On Midsummer's Eve 2008, three people, each on the run from a failed relationship, become trapped in San Francisco's Buena Vista Park, the secret home of Titania, Oberon, and their court. On this night, something awful is happening in the faerie kingdom: in a fit of sadness over the end of her marriage, which broke up in the wake of the death of her adopted son, Titania has set loose an ancient menace, and the chaos that ensues threatens the lives of immortals and mortals alike.

Vaclav and Lena by Haley Tanner
Vaclav and Lena seem destined for each other. They meet as children in an ESL class in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. Vaclav is precocious and verbal. Lena, struggling with English, takes comfort in the safety of his adoration, his noisy, loving home, and the care of Rasia, his big-hearted mother. Vaclav imagines their story unfolding like a fairy tale but among the many truths to be discovered in Haley Tanner's wondrous debut is that happily ever after is never a foregone conclusion.

The Way Things Look to Me by Roopa Farooki
The Murphy family has never tried to be different; they just are. When Yasmin, the youngest sibling, was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, her older siblings learned to adapt to less attention and more responsibility, to a sister with "special abilities" that no one, not even they, could ever truly understand. And then there's the way Yasmin sees it: She sees music in color, and her mind remembers every tiny detail of every day until sometimes she wishes she could just forget.