Wild: from lost to found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed

A powerful, blazingly honest memoir: the story of an eleven-hundred-mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe-and built her back up again.

At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother's death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life: to hike the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State - and to do it alone. She had no experience as a long-distance hiker, and the trail was little more than "an idea, vague and outlandish and full of promise." But it was a promise of piecing back together a life that had come undone.

Strayed faces down rattlesnakes and black bears, intense heat and record snowfalls, and both the beauty and loneliness of the trail. Told with great suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor, Wild vividly captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her.

315 pages (March 2012)

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Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild, talks about her hike (Knopfdoubleday):

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Title Read-alikes: Turning by Jessica J. Lee; Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert; Braver Than You Think by Maggie Downs; Alone Time by Stephanie Rosenbloom; Grandma Gatewood's Walk by Ben Montgomery; Claiming Ground by Laura Bell; Blue Plate Special by Kate Christensen; Pomegranate Season by Carolyn Polizzotto; A Blistered Kind of Love by Angela Ballard; Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer; The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls; Dances with Marmots by George C. Spearing; and I Promise Not to Suffer by Gail Storey.

A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar by Suzanne Joinson

It is 1923. Evangeline (Eva) English and her sister Lizzie are missionaries heading for the ancient Silk Road city of Kashgar. Though Lizzie is on fire with her religious calling, Eva’s motives are not quite as noble, but with her green bicycle and a commission from a publisher to write A Lady Cyclist’s Guide to Kashgar, she is ready for adventure.

In present day London, a young woman, Frieda, returns from a long trip abroad to find a man sleeping outside her front door. She gives him a blanket and a pillow, and in the morning finds the bedding neatly folded and an exquisite drawing of a bird with a long feathery tail, some delicate Arabic writing, and a boat made out of a flock of seagulls on her wall. Tayeb, in flight from his Yemeni homeland, befriends Frieda and, when she learns she has inherited the contents of an apartment belonging to a dead woman she has never heard of, they embark on an unexpected journey together.

A Lady Cyclist’s Guide to Kashgar explores the fault lines that appear when traditions from different parts of an increasingly globalized world crash into one other. Beautifully written, and peopled by a cast of unforgettable characters, the novel interweaves the stories of Frieda and Eva, gradually revealing the links between them and the ways in which they each challenge and negotiate the restrictions of their societies as they make their hard-won way toward home. A Lady Cyclist’s Guide to Kashgar marks the debut of a wonderfully talented new writer.

374 pages. (May 2012)

 

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Title Read-alikes: Everything Under the Sky by Matilde Asensi; The Towers of Trebizond by Rose Macaulay; The Sandalwood Tree by Elle Newmark; Lost Roses by Martha Hall Kelly The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters; The Spies of Shilling Lane by Jennifer Ryan; The Map of Love by Ahdaf Soueif; The Ship of Brides by Jojo Moyes; The Space Between Us by Thrity N. Umrigar; A Thousand Days in Venice by Marlena de Blasi; Swimming with Elephants by Sarah Bamford Seidelmann; The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian; and The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan.

Canada by Richard Ford

"First, I'll tell about the robbery our parents committed. Then the murders, which happened later."

When fifteen-year-old Dell Parsons' parents rob a bank, his sense of a happy, knowable life is forever shattered. In an instant, this private cataclysm drives his life across a threshold that can never be uncrossed.

His parents' arrest and imprisonment mean a threatening and uncertain future for Dell and his twin sister, Berner. Willful and burning with resentment, Berner flees their home in Montana, abandoning her brother and her life. But Dell is not completely alone. A family friend intervenes, spiriting him across the Canadian border, in hopes of delivering him to a better life. There, afloat on the prairie of Saskatchewan, Dell is taken in by Arthur Remlinger, an enigmatic and charismatic American, whose suave reserve masks a dark and violent nature.

Undone by the calamity of his parents' robbery and arrest, Dell struggles under the vast prairie sky to remake himself and define the adults he thought he knew and loved. But his search for grace and peace only moves him nearer a harrowing and murderous collision with Remlinger, an elemental force of darkness.

A true masterwork of haunting and spectacular vision from one of our greatest writers, Canada is a profound novel of boundaries traversed, innocence lost and reconciled, and the mysterious and consoling bonds of family. Told in spare elegant prose, resonant and luminous, it is destined to become a classic

420 pages (May 2012)

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Title Read-alikes: The Round House by Louise Erdrich; The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall; Rule of the Bone by Russell Banks; Through Black Spruce by Joseph Boyden; The Painter by Peter Heller; Peace Like a River by Leif Enger; Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje; History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund; Still Missing by Chevy Stevens; Wyoming by J. P. Gritton; El Paso by Winston Groom; You Must Set Forth at Dawn by Wole Soyinka; and Simón by Miqui Otero.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Marriage can be a real killer.

One of the most critically acclaimed suspense writers of our time, New York Times bestseller Gillian Flynn takes that statement to its darkest place in this unputdownable masterpiece about a marriage gone terribly, terribly wrong. The Chicago Tribune proclaimed that her work “draws you in and keeps you reading with the force of a pure but nasty addiction.” Gone Girl’s toxic mix of sharp-edged wit and deliciously chilling prose creates a nerve-fraying thriller that confounds you at every turn.

On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer?

As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they know the one that they love. With his twin sister, Margo, at his side, Nick stands by his innocence. Trouble is, if Nick didn’t do it, where is that beautiful wife? And what was in that silvery gift box hidden in the back of her bedroom closet?

With her razor-sharp writing and trademark psychological insight, Gillian Flynn delivers a fast-paced, devilishly dark, and ingeniously plotted thriller that confirms her status as one of the hottest writers around.

419 pages (June 2012)

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Gone Girl: Gillian Flynn explains that ending from Entertainment Weekly  (⚠ SPOILERS ABOUND...)

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Title Read-alikes: Blood Wedding by Pierre Lemaitre; Watching Edie by Camilia Way; In the Blood by Lisa Unger; The Silent Wife by A. S. A. Harrison; After Anna by Alex Lake; Beside Myself by Ann Morgan;; The Good Girl by Mary Kubica; Monday's Lie by Jamie Mason; Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney; The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen; The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins; The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold; and Let the Dark Flower Blossom by Narah Labiner.

Profound River by John L. Gubbins

Did a nun really invent the first flies for fly-fishing? Yes. Dame Juliana Berners was a remarkable woman: devout catholic nun and the credited inventor of fly-fishing. From boar-hunting on horseback with nothing but a spear to facing off with greedy priests determined to further impoverish her convent and family of faithful sisters, Dame Juliana's story will surprise and inspire you.

Dame Juliana Berners was a devout catholic nun who used the rich decorations that adorned the ceremonial robes of her faith to create the first fishing lures, becoming the Mother of Fly-Fishing From boar-hunting on horseback with nothing but a spear to facing off against greedy priests determined to further impoverish her convent and family of faithful sisters, Dame Juliana's story will surprise and inspire you.

 

235 pages (August 2011)

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Title Read-alikes: Magdalena Mountain by Robert Michael Pyle; Refuge by Terry Tempest Williams; My Last Continent by Midge Raymond; Earthly Joys by Philippa Gregory; Year of Wonders by Geradine Brooks; The Glass Ocean by Lori Baker; Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh; The Ninth Hour by Alice McDermott; Illuminations by Mary Sharratt; The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett; The Anchoress by Robyn Cadwallader; The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro; and Antihill by Edward O. Wilson.

The American Heiress by Daisy Goodwin

Be careful what you wish for.

 

Traveling abroad with her mother at the turn of the twentieth century to seek a titled husband, beautiful, vivacious Cora Cash, whose family mansion in Newport dwarfs the Vanderbilts’, suddenly finds herself Duchess of Wareham, married to Ivo, the most eligible bachelor in England. Nothing is quite as it seems, however: Ivo is withdrawn and secretive, and the English social scene is full of traps and betrayals. Money, Cora soon learns, cannot buy everything, as she must decide what is truly worth the price in her life and her marriage.

Witty, moving, and brilliantly entertaining, The American Heiress marks the debut of a glorious storyteller who brings a fresh new spirit to the world of Edith Wharton and Henry James.

468 pages (August 2010)

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Title Read-alikes: That Churchill Woman by Stephanie Barron; The American Duchess by Karen Harper; Decorum by Kaaren Christopherson; Belgravia by Julian Fellowes; Never Seduce a Scoundrel by Sabrina Jeffries; Temptation's Darling by Johanna Lindsey; The Perfect Lover by Stephanie Laurens; The Naked Duke by Sally MacKenzie; Duchess in Love by Eloisa James; The Maze at Windermere by Gregory Blake Smith; Victoria by Daisy Goodwin; The Accidental Empress by Allison Pataki; and The Woman Before Wallis: a novel of Windsors, Vanderbilts, and royal scandal by Bryn Turnbull.

The Submission by Amy Waldman

Reimagining 9/11 and its aftermath, Amy Waldman's provocative novel begins with a resonant scene: a jury gathers in Manhattan to choose a memorial for the victims of a devastating Islamic terrorist attack. After tense deliberations, they select the Garden, which features trees both living and made from salvaged steel. Then the jury discovers that the anonymous architect who created the winning design is an American Muslim.

The revelation triggers both fury and ambivalence throughout New York, making the designer the staunchly independent Mohammed "Mo" Khan a symbol of beliefs that seem foreign to him. His most visible defender is Claire Harwell, the only member of the selection committee who lost a loved one in the attack. Cool and eloquent, Claire grows increasingly frustrated by Mo as he stubbornly refuses to answer concerns about the origins or meaning of his design.

At the helm of the memorial project is Paul Rubin, a grandson of Jewish peasants who has risen to a position of influence and wealth. Paul's idea of America is rooted in tolerance, but he must also take into account the emotions of outraged, grieving family members who want him to quash Mo's design. Within the crowds, two powerful voices come to dominate the debate: the widow of an undocumented worker who cleaned offices champions Mo's design, while the brother of a fallen firefighter calls it the worst kind of disrespect.

299 pages (August 2011)

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Title Read-alikes: One True Thing by Anna Quindlen; Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar; Half a Heart by Rosellen Brown; Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult; Midwives by Chris Bohjalian; Submission by Michel Houellebecq; Now and Again by Charlotte Rogan; The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid; Terrorist by John Updike; This is How It Begins by Joan Dempsey; The Miracle Girl by Andrew Roe; Minaret by Leila Aboulela; and Eat the Document by Dana Spiotta.