Contrary to popular belief, we don't sit around and read all day long. BUT we do our best to get through as many books as we can so that we can look for and find those great reads that you are looking for! We all have slightly different sensibilities so we made sure who to mark who was recommending what. Enjoy the list and feel free to let us know what you think, too!

Also, stay tuned to this page because we will be adding to it regularly. And I promise that we'll have pictures soon. Getting the staff to all gather for a photo is proving a little daunting. Apparently no one likes to have their pictures taken.

Order One Of These Books

THE ART OF FIELDING by Chad Harbach
Hardcover, published 9/11, $25.99
At Westish College, a small school on the shore of Lake Michigan, baseball star Henry Skrimshander seems destined for big league stardom. But when a routine throw goes disastrously off course, the fates of five people are upended.

Henry's fight against self-doubt threatens to ruin his future. College president Guert Affenlight, a longtime bachelor, has fallen unexpectedly and helplessly in love. Owen Dunne, Henry's gay roommate and teammate, becomes caught up in a dangerous affair. Mike Schwartz, the Harpooners' team captain and Henry's best friend, realizes he has guided Henry's career at the expense of his own. And Pella Affenlight, Guert's daughter, returns to Westish after escaping an ill-fated marriage, determined to start a new life.

As the season counts down to its climactic final game, these five are forced to confront their deepest hopes, anxieties, and secrets. In the process they forge new bonds, and help one another find their true paths. Written with boundless intelligence and filled with the tenderness of youth, The Art of Fielding is an expansive, warmhearted novel about ambition and its limits, about family and friendship and love, and about commitment--to oneself and to others.
Recommended by Barbara and Laura

A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES by Deborah Harkness
Paperback, published 12/11, $16.00
In a sparkling debut, A Discovery of Witches became the "it" book of early 2011, bringing Deborah Harkness into the spotlight and galvanizing fans around the world. In this tale of passion and obsession, Diana Bishop, a young scholar and the descendant of witches, discovers a long-lost and enchanted alchemical manuscript deep in Oxford's Bodleian Library. Its reappearance summons a fantastical underworld, which she navigates with her leading man, vampire geneticist Matthew Clairmont. Harkness has created a universe to rival those of Anne Rice, Diana Gabaldon, and Elizabeth Kostova, and she adds a scholar's depth to this riveting story of magic and suspense.

This is not your Twilight kind of vampire story. I read through the night and was thrilled and crushed to learn that there was going to be a sequel. Why crushed? Because I knew I would have to wait to see how everything turned out!
Recommended by Laura

HUSBAND AND WIFE by Leah Stewart
Hardcover, published 5/10, $24.99
Sarah Price had dreams of becoming a poet. But two small children later, her freelance writing gets traded for a steady job to support her husband, Nathan, a successful fiction writer. So, of course, the last thing she wants to discover one evening, while hurriedly getting ready for a wedding, is that nathan’s last novel about infidelity is anything but fiction.

What happens after his confession makes for a great story about love, fidelity, children, family and what it means to forgive. Sarah’s journey is funny, heartfelt and ultimately satisfying. I loved her children in all their “kid” moments. And Stewart has managed to perfectly portray all those difficult and joyous ups and downs of a marriage. This is a wonderful summer read.
Recommended by Barbara

STILL MISSING by Chevy Stevens
Hardcover, published 7/10, $24.99
I have been accused by the Mystery Book Club of having a dark side and, as far as fiction goes, I would agree. Every now and then, I like a gritty, scary mystery/thriller to get my blood pumping. Well, this summer, that book is Still Missing. I had the pleasure of meeting Chevy at an author dinner and she explained that her idea for the book came from thinking about what would happen if you were gone from your life for a long time – like six months or a year. What would it look like when you came back? From there, she couldn’t help but wonder why you would disappear for that length of time – and that’s where we get the story.

Annie O’Sullivan, a 32-year-old realtor, gets abducted from an open house and taken to a remote cabin in the wilderness by a sadistic psychopath. Many of the details about the year she spent there unfold during sessions with her therapist – and it was a harrowing, horrific time. The second narrative of the novel follows her as she tries to piece her shattered life back together and the ongoing police investigation into the identity of her captor. Check your locks before you read this one – but definitely read it!
Recommended by Laura

THE SENATOR’S WIFE and THE LAKE SHORE LIMITED by Sue Miller
Paperback, published 1/09, $14.95 and Hardcover, published 4/10, $24.95
I had not read Sue Miller before these two novels and now I regret it. Both books offer a very interesting look into commitments, relationships and love. The Senator’s Wife is particularly interesting in this day and time because the senator in question is a consummate philanderer. His wife’s relationship with him is he backbone of the story and is incredibly interesting and complex. In The Lake Shore Limited, Miller has taken a playwright and her play to examine the aftermath of 9/11 for its characters. I found both books fascinating although they were quite different plot-wise. I particularly liked Miller’s writing style and how the stories played out. In both cases, Miller saved life-changing events for the very last pages. I’m still thinking about them even now.
Recommended by Laura

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