Fiction
Alas, Babylon
Pat Frank
FICTION Frank, Pat
Fiction
“Alas, Babylon.” Those fateful words heralded the end. When the unthinkable nightmare of nuclear holocaust ravaged the United States, it was instant death for tens of millions of people; for survivors, it was a nightmare of hunger, sickness, and brutality. Overnight, a thousand years of civilization were stripped away. But for one small Florida town, miraculously spared against all the odds, the struggle was only just beginning, as the isolated survivors—men and women of all ages and races—found the courage to come together and confront the harrowing darkness.
The passage
Justin Cronin
FICTION Cronin, Justin
Fiction
First, the unthinkable: a security breach at a secret U.S. government facility unleashes the monstrous product of a chilling military experiment. Then, the unspeakable: a night of chaos and carnage gives way to sunrise on a nation, and ultimately a world, forever altered. All that remains for the stunned survivors is the long fight ahead and a future ruled by fear—of darkness, of death, of a fate far worse. As civilization swiftly crumbles into a primal landscape of predators and prey, two people flee in search of sanctuary. FBI agent Brad Wolgast is a good man haunted by what he's done in the line of duty. Six-year-old orphan Amy Harper Bellafonte is a refugee from the doomed scientific project that has triggered apocalypse. Wolgast is determined to protect her from the horror set loose by her captors, but for Amy, escaping the bloody fallout is only the beginning of a much longer odyssey—spanning miles and decades—toward the time an place where she must finish what should never have begun.
Book one of The Passage series. -Beth
Rodham : a novel
Curtis Sittenfeld
FICTION Sittenfeld, Curtis
Fiction
"In 1971, Hillary Rodham is a young woman full of promise. Life magazine covered her Wellesley commencement speech, she's attending Yale Law School, and she's on the forefront of student activism and the women's rights movement. Then she meets a fellow law student named Bill Clinton. A charismatic Southerner, Bill is already laying the groundwork for his political career. In each other, Hillary and Bill find a profound intellectual, emotional, and physical connection that neither has previously experienced. In the real world, Hillary followed Bill back to Arkansas, and he proposed several times. Although she turned him down more than once, she eventually accepted and became Hillary Clinton. But in Curtis Sittenfeld's powerfully imagined tour de force of fiction, Hillary follows a different path. Listening to her doubts about the prospective marriage, she endures a devastating break-up and leaves Arkansas. Over the next four decades, she blazes her own trail--one that unfolds in public as well as in private, that crosses paths again (and again) with Bill Clinton, that raises questions about the trade-offs all of us must make to build a life. Brilliantly weaving actual historical events into a riveting fictional tale, Sittenfeld delivers an uncannily astute story for our times. In exploring the loneliness, moral ambivalence, and iron determination that characterize the quest for political power, as well as both the exhilaration and painful compromises demanded of female ambition in a world still mostly run by men, Rodham is a singular and unforgettable novel."--
Added by Beth
The underground railroad : a novel
Colson Whitehead
FICTION Whitehead, Colson
Fiction
Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. An outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is on the cusp of womanhood—where greater pain awaits. And so when Caesar, a slave who has recently arrived from Virginia, urges her to join him on the Underground Railroad, she seizes the opportunity and escapes with him. In Colson Whitehead's ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is no mere metaphor: engineers and conductors operate a secret network of actual tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil. Cora embarks on a harrowing flight from one state to the next, encountering, like Gulliver, strange yet familiar iterations of her own world at each stop.
Added by Beth
Good morning, midnight : a novel
Lily Brooks-Dalton
FICTION Brooks-Dalton Lily
Fiction
"In a world transformed by an unknown disaster, two outsiders must grapple with love, regret, and survival. Augustine, a brilliant and aging astronomer, refuses to evacuate his remote research post when news of a catastrophe arrives. He and a mysterious child, left behind in the evacuation, are trapped alone in the Arctic Circle, with no one responding to their radio calls. Meanwhile, Mission Specialist Sullivan is on a long return flight from Jupiter. When she and her fellow astronauts discover that Mission Control has fallen silent, and that they must find their way home without help, she wonders if she will ever return to the daughter and the life she left behind. As their stories gradually intertwine, Augustine and Sully each confront uncertain futures and question the regrets and sacrifices that have defined their lives -- until the profound and unexpected conclusion, when a powerful answer is offered." -- Page [4] of cover.
George Clooney directed and starred in the 2020 film version. -Beth
Atonement : a novel
Ian McEwan
FICTION McEwan, Ian
Fiction
In 1935 England, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis witnesses an event involving her sister Cecilia and her childhood friend Robbie Turner, and she becomes the victim of her own imagination, which leads her on a lifelong search for truth and absolution.
Joe Wright directed the 2007 film version of Attonement, starring Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, and Brenda Blethyn. -Beth
Perfume : the story of a murderer
Patrick Süskind
FICTION Suskind, Patrick
Fiction
An acclaimed bestseller and international sensation, Patrick Suskind's classic novel provokes a terrifying examination of what happens when one man's indulgence in his greatest passion—his sense of smell—leads to murder.
Tom Tykwer directed the 2006 film version by the same title, starring Ben Whishaw, Dustin Hoffman and Alan Rickman. -Beth
The hunt for Red October
Tom Clancy
FICTION Clancy, Tom
Fiction
The Soviets' new ballistic-missile submarine is attempting to defect to the United States, but the Soviet Atlantic fleet has been ordered to find and destroy her at all costs. Can Red October reach the U.S. safely? Gripping military thriller about the chase after a top-secret Russian missilesubmarine.
John McTiernan directed the 1990 film version which starred Sean Connery, Alec Baldwin, and Scott Glenn . -Beth
At home in Mitford
Jan Karon
FICTION Karon, Jan
Fiction
The first book in the Mitford Years series by Jan Karon. It’s easy to feel at home in Mitford. In these high, green hills, the air is pure, the village is charming, and the people are generally lovable. Yet, Father Tim, the bachelor rector, wants something more. Enter a dog the size of a sofa who moves in and won’t go away. Add an attractive neighbor who begins wearing a path through the hedge. Now stir in a lovable but unloved boy, a mystifying jewel theft, and a secret that’s sixty years old. Suddenly, Father Tim gets more than he bargained for. And readers get a rich comedy in which mysteries and miracles abound.
Became the 2017 Hallmark Television film of the same title, starring Andie MacDowell, Cameron Mathison, and Ken Tremblett. -Beth
The girl with the dragon tattoo
Stieg Larsson
FICTION Larsson, Stieg
Fiction
The disappearance forty years ago of Harriet Vanger, a young scion of one of the wealthiest families in Sweden, gnaws at her octogenarian uncle, Henrik Vanger. He is determined to know the truth about what he believes was her murder. He hires crusading journalist Mikael Blomkvist, recently at the wrong end of a libel case, to get to the bottom of Harriet's disappearance. Lisbeth Salander, a twenty-four-year-old, pierced, tattooed genius hacker, possessed of the hard-earned wisdom of someone twice her age--and a terrifying capacity for ruthlessness--assists Blomkvist with the investigation. This unlikely team discovers a vein of nearly unfathomable iniquity running through the Vanger family, an astonishing corruption at the highest echelon of Swedish industrialism--and a surprising connection between themselves.--From publisher description.
David Fincher directed the 2011 film version that starred Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, and Christopher Plummer. -Beth
Added by Beth