Table of Contents: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

Author: David Wroblewski
Publisher:HarperCollins
Year: 2008
Synopsis: Edgar Sawtelle is a mute boy growing up on a Wisconsin farm that trains a unique breed of dogs. Edgar uses a sign language that lets him communicate easily with both his parents and the dogs. When his Uncle Claude comes to live at the farm, and then his father dies under mysterious circumstances, Edgar takes three dogs and heads for the woods. Edgar and the dogs struggle for survival in the wild, but he knows he'll have to eventually return and confront his uncle.



What Others Have to Say:
New York Times
"Pick up this book and expect to feel very, very reluctant to put it down."

Washington Post
"...a devastating finale, shocking though foretold, that transforms the story of this little family into something grand and unforgettable."

USA Today
"You can hear echoes of Hamlet..."

New York Daily News
"..."Wroblewski takes his time with his story and you will as well."

Boston Globe
"Wroblewski is a terrific writer and has an unerring ear for dialogue - both spoken and signed ..."

Entertainment Weekly
"...a good old-fashioned coming-of-age yarn."

Extras:
Read an excerpt from the book.

Table of Contents: Run

Author: Ann Patchett
Publisher: Harper
Year: 2007
Synopsis: Run centers around two families. Bernard Doyle is an ex-mayor of Boston, and ten years after his wife's death, he's raised their three sons to adulthood. The oldest son, Sullivan, has been a disappointment to his father, but his two adopted black children, Tip and Teddy, have become good men, but they lack their father's desire to follow him into the political world. Tip is nearly run down on the street one evening, but he's saved by a black woman, Tennessee Moser, who pushes him out of the way and is instead hit by the vehicle. Her 11-year-old daughter, Kenya, has nowhere to stay while Tennessee is in the hospital, so the Doyles take her in. It turns out that the Mosers just lived blocks away from the Doyles, but it's a world of difference.


What Others Have to Say:
Washington Post
"...Patchett has given this one an ending that is just about perfect."

Boston Globe
"...the novel possesses an easy confidence..."

New York Times
"...shimmers with its author’s rarefied eloquence, and with the deep resonance of her insights."

The Independent
"[Patchett's]kind of practical magic comes from the emotional pitch she can inject into a scene involving three estranged people making coffee, her belief in the power of the happyish ending, and a faith in humanity that seems to be growing stronger with every book."

The Guardian
"...a book about good people who try to do their best by each other."

Entertainment Weekly
"...capable of lovely work, but there isn't a believable moment in this inert novel."

Table of Contents: Lush Life

Author: Richard Price
Publisher: Picador
Year: 2008
Synopsis: The story begins with a murder on Manhattan's Lower East Side where trendy bars and restaurants clash with housing projects. Eric Cash, a restaurant manager and aspiring writer whose best days might be behind him is walking with Ike Marcus, one of his bartenders, when Ike is shot dead. Eric's account of the crime has some glaring inconsistencies, and Detective Matty Clark continues to hunt down every lead. Author Richard Price tells the story of the crime and its unraveling from the different perspectives of Eric, Matty, Ike's grieving father, and Tristan, an abused, poor black kid raised in the neighborhood, showing the clash and similarities of the different social strata in the city.


What Others Have to Say:
New York Times
"At its most basic level, “Lush Life” is a police procedural, and it possesses all the gut-level suspense of a detective story."

New York Times (2)
"Raymond Chandler is peeping out from Price’s skull, as well he should be, given such gloomy doings, but in the enormous, cross-sensory architecture of the last three words above, one detects Saul Bellow’s vision, too."

Salon
"...a first-rate police procedural."

New York Observer
"...the novel suggests that the brutality and neglect of the projects births new killers every day, doomed to life stories depressingly similar to the one just recounted."

Entertainment Weekly
"...real protagonist is the complicated, tragic, and endlessly fascinating American city street."

USA Today
"Who's right is at the heart of this compelling story..."

Table of Contents: Water For Elephants

Author: Sara Gruen
Publisher: Algonquin
Year: 2007
Synopsis: Water for Elephants has an elderly Jacob Jankowski telling the story of his life with the circus. In 1932 just before he graduated from veterinary school, his parents died in a car accident. Having lost everything, he finds himself on a train with the Benzini Brothers traveling circus and decides to join them. The Benzini Brothers is not a top flight circus, full of mangy animals and brutal and odd employees. Jacob's veterinary skills move him up to being an animal doctor, and he finds himself falling for the beautiful Marlena, wife of the mercurial and bad-tempered animal trainer. When the circus purchases an elephant named Rosie and who then appears to be untrainable, it's up to Jacob to train her and save the circus.


What Others Have to Say:
New York Times
"With a showman's expert timing, she saves a terrific revelation for the final pages, transforming a glimpse of Americana into an enchanting escapist fairy tale."

Curled Up
"...Jacob’s spirit retains the essence of his kind nature, a man who cannot be broken by circumstances."

Quill and Quire
"...heartfelt, entertaining, and poignant..."

Entertainment Weekly
"...sprightly tale has a ringmaster's crowd-pleasing pace."