National Network for Equitable Library Service

"According to what we've been told, the source of all knowledge is somewhere just south of Sunset Boulevard. The problem is that Danny has lost the address." So begins Martyn Burke's tragi-comic novel of love and war. Danny, a Canadian sharp-shooter, and Hank, in the US Army, have been stationed in Kandahar, but they are in Los Angeles desperate to find the Hollywood psychic who will reveal the whereabouts of the women they love.

On a three-tiered stage in the Ontario countryside, the mellifluous voice of an auctioneer can induce grizzled farmers to buy broken shovels. His two sons help out with the business, but it's his strangely mute young daughter who seduces auction-goers with her elaborate vintage costumes. When she disappears, the younger brother - now a Montreal film professor - begins a lifelong search that ultimately leads him to the silent, experimental cinema of Molly O.

For the last five years, Ben Allan has successfully kept dromomania the peculiar male hysteria known as the mid-life crisis at bay, even writing an award-winning essay on the subject. But when his fifteen minutes of fame become a countdown to his fiftieth birthday, Ben begins to see his own life reflected in those he has written about. Goaded by his father and colleagues, Ben begins to question why his life has turned out the way it has and what exactly is stopping him from running away from everything he feels is holding him down.

From three big names in urban fiction comes this collection of novellas, unforgettable stories of urban love and its consequences for four young black women: Flirting with Disaster by Tracy Brown, Wild Cherry by K'wan, and Twice in a Lifetime by Angel Mitchell.

Third Sister in the Tao family, Ailin has watched her two older sisters go through the painful process of having their feet bound. In China in 1911, all the women of good families follow this ancient tradition. But Ailin loves to run away from her governess and play games with her male cousins. Knowing she will never run again once her feet are bound, Ailin rebels and refuses to follow this torturous tradition. As a result, however, the family of her intended husband breaks their marriage agreement.

A barrister becomes a detective when his friend disappears at an English manor in this classic Victorian novel. Beautiful Lucy Graham charms every man she meets, including wealthy widower Sir Michael Audley. After they marry, he refurbishes his mansion to create a little palace for his new wife, where her future seems bright. Her past, however, is shrouded in darkness, and she'll do whatever it takes to keep it hidden. Then Sir Michael's nephew, Robert, a London barrister, comes for a visit with his good friend George Talboys for a week of fishing.

The National Book Award-winning author of The Women of Brewster Place explores the secrets of an affluent black community. For its wealthy African American residents, the exclusive neighborhood of Linden Hills is a symbol of "making it." The ultimate achievement: a home on prestigious Tupelo Drive. Making your way downhill to Tupelo is irrefutable proof of your worth. But the farther down the hill you go, the emptier you become ...

The Orion Psi Corps is in shambles, the dead still being counted. And though Orion's retaliation has begun, Calchis isn't finished yet. New Axom City-that's where Nyne Allen has taken refuge in the wake of his desertion from Orion. Soon, it will become a battlefield, as forces from both sides barrel toward a collision that will change the world forever. Meanwhile, in the Far East, Aaron Waverly learns the truth behind the red-robed man, even as a new threat looms that may one day devour everything.

King Hrothgar of Denmark has a problem: though his land prospers, his great mead-hall is plagued nightly by a horrible beast, Grendel, that pillages and kills his men. Leaving his home in Sweden, the warrior Beowulf sails to the king's aid. Beowulf and his men camp in the mead-hall to wait for Grendel. When the beast attacks, Beowulf grabs him by the claw and rips his arm off, making the beast flee in defeat. But Grendel isn't the only challenge facing Beowulf and, even in his native Sweden, adventures and dangers await.

"Jessica Keener has written a gorgeous, lyrical, and sweeping novel about the tangled web of past and present. Suspenseful, perceptive, fast-paced, and ultimately restorative." -Susan Henderson, author of Up from the Blue Budapest: gorgeous city of secrets, with ties to a shadowy, bloody past. It is to this enigmatic European capital that a young American couple, Annie and Will, move from Boston with their infant son shortly after the fall of the Communist regime.