Middletown Thrall Library carries you... Beyond the Bestsellers - Your Seasonal Guide to New and Interesting Authors - Fall 2013 Edition

BTB is published quarterly.

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Click below for previous BTBs and more reading recommendations:






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Beyond the Bestsellers highlights new and notable authors not often found on bestseller lists.

To learn more about a book and check on its availablity within the library system, click on a title below.

You can also click on an author's name to find any additional titles by that author in the library system.





General Fiction

  • The Gravity of Birds - Tracy GuzemanThe Gravity of Birds - Tracy Guzeman - Renowned but reclusive artist Thomas Bayber reveals a previously unknown work of his to art historian Dennis Fincher and art appraiser Stephen Jameson, giving them the task of selling the portrait of a young Bayber with the two Kessler sisters. The trouble is two of the painting's three panels have gone missing along with the two sisters to whom they were gifted. Dennis and Stephen, each with their eccentricities, must take a road trip to track down Bayber's past and dig up long buried secrets.
  • The Returned - Jason MottThe Returned - Jason Mott - All over the world those who have died are being returned to the world of the living as if nothing had ever happened. Harold and Lucille find their eight-year-old son on their doorstep fifty years after his death and must come to terms with the sudden return of one long lost.

Other titles to consider:





Historical Fiction

  • The Daughters of Mars - Thomas KeneallyThe Daughters of Mars - Thomas Keneally - Australian sisters Naomi and Sally Durance volunteer as nurses in 1915 and face love and loss in this moving story. Keneally's richly-detailed descriptions of the war and period medical treatments do not diminish the focus on the sisters' story. The novel humanizes the horrors and futility of war as it explores the uncertainties of life.

Other titles to consider:





Science Fiction & Fantasy

  • The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic - Emily Croy BarkerThe Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic - Emily Croy Barker - Discouraged graduate student Nora Fischer wanders through a portal into a parallel world while on a walk. In this alternate world, Nora is transformed into a glamorous woman with fabulous friends and new boyfriend, but not is all as it seems. There is a darkness beneath the surface, and Nora must learn magic from a brooding, enigmatic wizard to survive.
  • The Daedalus Incident - Michael MartinezThe Daedalus Incident - Michael Martinez - Mars is supposed to be tectonically stable, but freak quakes disrupt the 22nd century mining work led by Lt. Sheila Jain. A 300-year-old journal - that is writing itself - is revealed. This journal from Lt. Thomas Weatherby of the HMS Daedalus chronicles the voyage through a void between worlds as well as Weatherby's quest to find a dangerous mystic who threatens the fabric of space itself. Martinez's genre-blending debut should appeal to space opera and steampunk fans alike.

Other titles to consider:





Mysteries

  • A Place of Confinement - Anna DeanA Place of Confinement - Anna Dean - Miss Dido Kent is acting as her wealthy aunt's companion on a visit to Charcombe Manor when a fellow guest goes missing. Suspicion falls on the son of Dido's suitor, and she must exonerate him and unearth the reasons for everyone else's strange behavior. Fans of classic detective stories and Jane Austen are sure to enjoy.
  • The Infatuations - Javier MariasThe Infatuations - Javier Marias - Maria Dolz observes what she believes is the perfect couple at the cafe she frequents. When the husband is senselessly murdered one day, Maria reaches out to the widow and meets family friend, Javier. Maria and Javier's relationship grows until Maria overhears something suggesting there was more to the brutal murder than it appears.

Other titles to consider:





Thrillers

  • Save Yourself - Kelly BraffetSave Yourself - Kelly Braffet - Patrick bears the blame as his father goes to jail for a deadly hit-and-run. His brother's girlfriend, Caro, fled from a home plagued by mental illness in her teens. Layla and Verna, scorned by classmates, join a group of goth kids. These five lives, each damaged by troubled pasts, collide in this dark novel by New Paltz author Kelly Braffet.

Other thrillers to consider:










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