Newcomers of Catawba Valley bridge

Oct. 26:
The Known World by Edward P. Jones
400 pages; several copies available Catawba, Hickory, and Alexander Cty
Henry Townsend, a black farmer, boot maker, and former slave, has a fondness for Paradise Lost and an unusual mentor -- William Robbins, perhaps the most powerful man in antebellum Virginia's Manchester County. Under Robbins's tutelage, Henry becomes proprietor of his own plantation -- as well as of his own slaves. When he dies, his widow, Caldonia, succumbs to profound grief, and things begin to fall apart at their plantation: slaves take to escaping under the cover of night, and families who had once found love beneath the weight of slavery begin to betray one another. Beyond the Townsend estate, the known world also unravels: low-paid white patrollers stand watch as slave "speculators" sell free black people into slavery, and rumors of slave rebellions set white families against slaves who have served them for years. An ambitious, luminously written novel that ranges seamlessly between the past and future and back again to the present, The Known World weaves together the lives of freed and enslaved blacks, whites, and Indians -- and allows all of us a deeper understanding of the enduring multidimensional world created by the institution of slavery.
(Edward Jones is scheduled for the Nov. 3^rd talk with the LR Visiting Writers Series.)

Dec. 14 (after the monthly meeting):
The Man Who Never Returned by Peter Quinn
335 pages; 1 copy available Catawba and 1 copy Hickory
On the sultry evening of August 6, 1930, in the first summer of the Great Depression, Joseph Force Crater, recently appointed a justice of the New York State Supreme Court by Governor Franklin Roosevelt, bid two dinner companions good night and hailed a cab. Off he went into history, myth, and urban legend. Judge Crater’s disappearance remains the most enduring, fascinating, unsolved mystery in the chronicles of Gotham.
In “The Man Who Never Returned”, Peter Quinn brings back Fintan Dunne, the relentless, skeptical ex-cop/detective from “Hour of the Cat”, and puts him on the Crater case. The year is 1955, the silver anniversary of the Judge’s vanishing and a last golden moment for solving the puzzle before the people and clues follow Crater into the fast-receding past. In a search full of unexpected twists, Dune uncovers the shocking and menacing truth.

February 22:
Franklin and Eleanor by Hazel Rowley
368 pages; only 1 copy available at Catawba
Franklin Delano and Eleanor Roosevelt’s marriage is one of the most celebrated and scrutinized partnerships in presidential history. It raised eyebrows in their lifetimes and has only become more controversial since their deaths. From FDR’s lifelong romance with Lucy Mercer to Eleanor’s purported lesbianism and many scandals in between the American public has never tired of speculating about the ties that bound these two headstrong individuals. Some claim that Eleanor sacrificed her personal happiness to accommodate FDR’s needs; other claim that the marriage was nothing more than a gracious facade for political convenience. No one has told the full story until now.

April 25:
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
688 pages; 5 copies Hickory, 7 copies Catawba, 1 copy Alexander
This brilliant novel revolves around what is broken -- limbs, family ties, trust -- and the process of rebuilding them. It starts with the birth of twin boys to a nursing nun, Sister Mary Praise Joseph, in a small hospital on the outskirts of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; an event which no one had expected: "The everyday miracle of conception had taken place in the one place it should not have: in Sister Mary Praise Joseph's womb." The delivery rapidly becomes a debacle when it's clear that Mary Praise Joseph can't deliver her baby normally; the last minute arrival home at "Missing" (the Mission Hospital) by Indian obstetrician Hema saves the children, but their mother dies and their presumed father, surgeon Thomas Stone, disappears into the night.
The twins come of age while Ethiopia is on the brink of revolution and they share a fascination with all things medical. It is a story of love, betrayal and miracles.

Other Books Suggested:
The 19^th Wife by David Ebershoff
The Music Lesson by Kathryn Weber
Once Upon a Time There was You by Elizabeth Berg
Mao’s Last Dancer by Li Cunxin
Little Bee by Chris Cleave
Moloka’i by Alan Brennert
The Girls by Lori Lansens
Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
A Wedding in December by Anita Shreve
The Tin Ticket: The Heroic Journey of Australia’s Convict Women by Deborah J. Swiss
Up From the Blue: A Novel by Susan Henderson