National Network for Equitable Library Service

In 2029, the United States is engaged in a bloodless world war. Overnight, the "almighty dollar" plummets in value. The Mandibles have been counting on a sizable fortune, but once the inheritance turns to ash, each family member must contend with disappointment and the challenge of sheer survival.

On a Caribbean island, we meet Felix Hoenikker, a physicist and one of the fathers of the atomic bomb. He makes another discovery, that of "ice-nine" a substance that can turn the whole world into a block of ice.

Don't leave Earth without this hilarious international bestseller about the end of the world and the happy-go-lucky days that follow ... about the worst Thursday that ever happened and why the Universe is a lot safer if you bring a towel.

"Stupendous...' novel that seems to have been created in real time, reflecting with perfect comedy and horrible tragedy exactly what America feels like right this minute."'Elizabeth Gilbert The bestselling author of Super Sad True Love Story returns with a biting, brilliant, emotionally resonant novel very much of our times. Narcissistic, hilariously self-deluded, and divorced from the real world as most of us know it, hedge-fund manager Barry Cohen oversees $2.4 billion in assets.

A collection of off-the-wall short stories by Japan's leading contemporary novelist. An elephant vanishes; hunger drives a couple to rob McDonalds; an insomniac wife wakes in a different world. Murakami is a cult figure throughout the world with an increasing reputation.

Partonville marks its centennial plus thirty--by arguing over the best way to celebrate it. Meanwhile, the acting mayor is trying to change a vital part of the town square (but it's always been that way!) and a newcomer named Katie can't avoid the suspicion that she's grown far closer to this quirky little place than she had ever intended.

Chet has smelled a lot of unusual things in his years as trusted companion and partner to P.I. Bernie Little, but nothing has prepared him for the exotic scents he encounters when an old-fashioned traveling circus comes to town. Unfortunately Peanut, the headlining pachyderm, has gone missing. How does an elephant vanish without a trace? Hired by Popo the Clown--who has his own reasons for wanting to find out what happened--Chet and Bernie are in hot pursuit after Chet takes a few sniffs in Peanut's trailer and picks up her one-of-a-kind scent.

Every writer know you can't go home again. But that's just what is required of West Texas expatriate Dee Bennett-Kaufmann when her mother is badly injured in a mysterious car accident. Single-again "Dr. Dee" has never been on the "A-team" in her trendy East Coast MFA program. When a prestigious summer fellowship gives her the chance to finally finish her book, salvage her career, and spend some quality time with her college-age daughter - Dee's certain her luck is about to change. Returning to care for her irascible, widowed mother threatens all of that.

Titus Maccius Plautus' career is on the decline. Once renound for bringing Greek comedies to the Roman world, now he struggles to stage a single play. Unlucky with money and unlucky in love, Plautus faces the world with wry dignity. This could be the performance that brings back fame and fortune, or the one that ends it all. Engaging, thoughtful, and funny, The Comedian dives into the rough and tumble world of arts in its infancy.

The stories in Farnsworth’s The Things She’ll Be Leaving Behind explore what it means to be a woman in the modern world, struggling against circumstances that are often unfair, inexplicable, and destructive. The women in this book don’t always behave in ways that are sensible or advisable or, for that matter, likely to result in success, but there’s a warped logic to what they do and the reasons they do it are intrinsically human.