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The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
by Alan Bradley
The heroine of this first novel is an enchanting 11 year old girl with a passion for chemistry and a talent for detection.  When she discovers a body in the cucumber bed, she uses these talents to find the murderer.

Spade & Archer
by Joe Gores
The authorized prequel to Dashiell Hammett's classic, The Maltese Falcon actually pulls off the feat.

Mathilda Savitch
by Victor Lodato
In a future society struggling with terrorism Mathilda investigates her older sister's shattering death and learns perplexing truths by accessing her sister's computer journals.

Wolf Hall
by Hilary Mantel
In King Henry VIII’s court, Hilary Mantel presents a picture of a half-made society on the cusp of change, where individuals fight or embrace their fate with passion and courage. With a vast array of characters, overflowing with incident, she re-creates an era when the personal and political are separated by a hairbreadth, where success brings unlimited power but a single failure means death.

Too Much Happiness
by Alice Munro
This new book of short stories by one of the masters of the genre and winner of the National Book Circle Award showcases her ability to craft engrossing stories out of the most ordinary circumstances.

Generosity : an enhancement
by Richard Powers
What will happen to life when science identifies the genetic basis of happiness?  Generosity celebrates both science and the freed imagination.

Wife of the Gods
by Kwei Quartey
This debut novel set in Ghana is the story of Detective Inspector Darko Dawson, a good family man and a remarkably intuitive sleuth who is sent to the village of Ketanu to solve the murder of an accomplished young AIDS worker.

The Coral Thief
by Rebecca Stott
Arriving in Paris in the aftermath of Waterloo, medical student Daniel Connor discovers that research materials he carried have been stolen.  His efforts to recover them, bring him into the underworld of philosopher thieves obsessed with emerging theories of evolution.  Elegant and thought-provoking.

Far North
by Marcel Theroux
This National Book Award Finalist takes place out on the far northern border of a failed state. Makepeace--sheriff and perhaps the last citizen--patrols the city ruins, salvaging books but keeping the guns in good repair. 

Love and Summer
by William Trevor
A subtle, beautifully told tale of Irish small town life, family strife and love in the wrong places.

Noah’s Compass
by Anne Tyler
A fifth grade teacher loses his job, and then his memory.  Tyler has a talent for making thoroughly engaging novels out of slightly wacky characters dealing with ordinary life.

My Father's Tears and Other Stories
by John Updike
Updike’s last book demonstrates once again why he was one of the major literary figures of our time.

Liars Anonymous
by Louise Ure
Roadside Assistance Operator, Jessie Dancing, knows what it’s like to take a life, and she’s trying to put that memory behind her. But when she thinks she hears a man being killed while she’s on the phone with him she can’t help getting involved.

Yogi Berra:  Eternal Yankee
by Allen Barra
Presents the life and career of Yogi Berra, from his childhood to his legendary position in the Yankees, and through his epic battles and final peace with George Steinbrenner.

Nothing to Fear:  FDR's Inner Circle and the Hundred Days That Created Modern America
by Adam Cohen
An account of the first one hundred days of FDR's presidency traces the transformation that took place throughout the federal government in the wake of unprecedented bank failures, unemployment, and poverty levels.

The Book of William:  How Shakespeare's First Folio Conquered the World
by Paul Collins
A history of the Bard's First Folio traces the author's travels from the site of a Sotheby auction to regions in Asia, throughout which he investigated the roles played by those who have sought and owned the Folios.

The big burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the fire that saved America
by Timothy Egan
Seattleite Egan, a National Book Award winner, dramatically tells the story of a 1910 forest fire that galvanized public opinion about the wilderness.

Einstein's Telescope
by Evalyn Gates
Gates transports us to the edge of science to explore the tool that unlocks the secrets of dark matter and dark energy.  Supplemented by beautiful astronomical photographs and instructive illustrations, this title is as exciting as it is informative to her readers.

Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City
by Greg Grandin
This National Book Award finalist recounts the story of the auto magnate's attempt to recreate small-town America, along with a rubber plantation, in the heart of the Amazon.

Summer World: A Season of Bounty
by Bernd Heinrich
This discussion of animal survival in the hot season is full of detail, enthusiasm and observant, engaging writing.

Strength in What Remains: A Journey of Remembrance and Forgiveness
by Tracy Kidder
Pulitzer and National Book Award winner Kidder tells the true story of a young Burundian medical student who barely escapes death in his country’s civil war, gains admission to Columbia, and returns to his home to build a hospital.  Beautifully written, powerful, and ultimately hopeful.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez: A Life
by Gerald Martin
A revelation of a life as gripping as any of the writer’s journalism and as enthralling as any of his fiction.

Not Now, Voyager
by Lynn Sharon Schwartz
For Schwartz the lure of the exotic is almost equally balanced with the comfort of the familiar, and the excitement of setting off on a journey with the pleasure of returning home.  Nine essays explore our ambiguous feelings towards travel.

Hands of My Father: A Hearing Boy, His Deaf Parents, and the Language of Love
by Myron Uhlberg
The author describes growing up as the hearing son of two deaf parents during the Depression.

A Brave Vessel: The True Tale of the Castaways Who Rescued Jamestown and Inspired Shakespeare's the Tempest
by Hobson Woodward
In 1609, aspiring writer William Strachey set sail aboard the Sea Venture, bound for the New World but was caught in a hurricane, and wrecked on uninhabited Bermuda.  His story of the experience was the inspiration for The Tempest.

Going Bovine
by Libba Bray
When a punk angel visits sixteen-year-old Cameron in the hospital and sends him on a quest to find a cure for his condition, he isn’t quite sure what’s real and what’s a product of his wandering mind. Cameron has been diagnosed with the Cruetzfeldt-Jakob disease, more commonly known as Mad Cow disease. But hoping to save himself from the dark energies of Dr. X, Cameron sets off, Don Quixote style, with a hypochondriac dwarf and a talking garden gnome to save the world.

North of Beautiful
by Justina Chen Headley
High school senior Terra struggles to decide her future as she goes through another round of treatments for the port-wine birthmark on her face. She wants to attend art college, but she doesn’t think her abusive father will allow that to happen. When she meets Jacob, a Chinese-American Goth boy with a cleft lip and his own complicated family life, she finds a new friend and new confidence, but will either be enough to make her see beyond her imperfections?

Silver Phoenix
by Cindy Pon
Seventeen-year-old Ai Ling knows that her parents have had a hard time finding a proper husband for her, but when her father goes missing a lecherous neighbor tries to blackmail her into marriage. She runs away to search for her father and meets another wandering misfit in search of his parents. Chen Yong doesn't know the identity of his birth parents, only that one of them was obviously a foreigner, since he is only half Xian. Together Chen Yong and Ai Ling soon find that their mysteries are connected and that they may need each other to survive.

Flygirl
by Sherri Smith
America has entered World War II and with her brother already on the front, eighteen-year-old Ida Mae Jones wants to do her bit to help. She can fly, so when she learns about the Women's Airforce Service Program (WASP), she's eager to join. There's just one problem; Ida Mae is an African American and therefore not eligible for the program. If she wants to fly with the WASPs, she have to pass for white and leave her family and friends behind.

Charles and Emma
by Deborah Heiligman
Charles Darwin believed in reason; he even drew up a chart with the pros and cons of marriage, but he eventually married Emma Wedgwood. Their unique relationship (he was a man of science and she was devoutly religious) thrived despite their differences as Darwin researched his theory of evolution, Emma helped him edit his controversial work and together they raised ten children.

Mission Control, This is Apollo
by Andrew Chaikin
Just in time for the 40th anniversary of the moon landing, this book details the facts and figures of each Apollo mission. Even better it also tells the stories of the men who dedicated their lives and talents to the program. Colorful paintings by astronaut Alan Bean illustrate the book, along with historical photos.

Extra Credit
by Andrew Clements
The story of a special friendship that forms between an American girl in Illinois, an Afghani girl who cannot write, and her brother who isn't allowed to communicate with girls as letters are sent and received, rules are broken, and bonds are made through their new understanding of the world and their place in it.

The Unfinished Angel
Sharon Creech
In a tiny village in the Swiss Alps, an angel meets an American girl named Zola who has come with her father to open a school, and together Zola and the angel rescue a group of homeless orphans, who gradually change everything.

The Magician's Elephant
Kate DiCamillo
When ten-year-old orphan Peter Augustus Duchene encounters a fortune teller in the marketplace one day and she tells him that his sister, who is presumed dead, is in fact alive, he embarks on a remarkable series of adventures as he desperately tries to find her.

11 Birthdays
Wendy Mass 
Amanda and Leo, best friends with the same birthday, had a falling out on their tenth birthday and have not spoken since, but peculiar things begin to happen as the day of their eleventh birthday begins to repeat itself over and over again.

The Mousehunter
Alex Milway
Emiline, who works for the wealthy Isiah Lovelock and dreams of the day when she can become a famous mousehunter, is thrilled when she gets the opportunity to go on a grand adventure in pursuit of the legendary pirate Mousebeard.

The Doom Machine
Mark Teague
When a spaceship lands in the small town of Vern Hollow in 1956, juvenile delinquent Jack Creedle and prim, studious Isadora Shumway form an unexpected alliance as they try to keep a group of extraterrestrials from stealing eccentric Uncle Bud's space travel machine.

Ashley Bryan: Words to My Life’s Songs
by Ashley Bryan
In rich collages of words and pictures, this highly visual autobiography introduces artist Ashley Bryan’s life and his vision of the world around him.

Butterflies And Moths
by Nic Bishop
A large-format book with gorgeous photographs and fascinating, meticulously captioned close-ups and new angles on a familiar subject.

Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11
by Brian Floca
This year is the 40th anniversary of the historic mission that put man on the moon and young readers are  taken along for the ride in this striking picture book.

Yummy: Eight Favorite Fairy Tales
by Lucy Cousins
The acclaimed creator of the Maisy series revamps eight classic stories, from Little Red Riding Hood to The Musicians of Bremen, retaining all the emotion and humor from the original fairy tales.

Button Up!: Wrinkled Rhymes
by Alice Schertle
Illustrated by Petra Mathers
An adorable cast of young animal characters don an array of shoes, jackets, hats, and other fun attire to demonstrate their unique personalities in this colorfully illustrated and entertaining collection of poetry.

Our Children Can Soar: A Celebration of Rosa, Barack, and the Pioneers of Change. Edited
by Michelle Cook
A beautiful picture book with art by 13 leading artists brings a message of hope that will inspire parents and grandparents to share their memories and talk with children about the future.

All in a Day by Cynthia Rylant, illustrated
by Nikki McClure
Gentle verses and bold cut-paper illustrations follow a day of a farm boy who feeds his chickens and checks his plants, revealing the gifts of a new day and the cycles of nature. 

Bubble Trouble
by Margaret Mahy, illustrated by Polly Dunbar
This is a tongue-twisting tale about how a baby gets into trouble when his sister Mabel's bubble gets away from her.  Soon the whole town is in a hubbub about the baby in the bubble as he bibble-bobbles by.

Dinotrux
by Chris Gall
A playful large-format book brings to life the prehistoric part-truck, part-dino creatures from millions of years ago.

Higher! Higher!
By Leslie Patricell
The sky has no limit in this witty picture book about a child on a swing and the wonders of the imagination.

Robot Zot!
By Jon Scieszka, illustrated by David Shannon
An action-packed story tells how Robot Zot, a three-inch hero who comes to conquer the Earth, and rescues the amazing Queen of all Earth.

Thunder-Boomer!
by  Shutta Crum, illustrated by carol Thompson
A free-verse poem with lots of playful sound effects describes a summer storm which brings relief from the heat--and a surprise--to a farm family.