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The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

After being transported by a cyclone to the land of Oz, Dorothy and her dog are befriended by a scarecrow, a tin man and a cowardly lion, who accompany her to the Emerald City to look for a wizard who can help her return home to Kansas. Illustrated by W. W. Denslow.

News and Reviews

• Following The Yellow Brick Road Back To The Origins Of 'Oz'
• We're Off To Read The Wizard, 'The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz'

In One Person

A tale inspired by the U.S. AIDS epidemic in the 1980s follows the experiences of individuals — including the bisexual narrator — who are torn by devastating losses, and whose perspectives on tolerance and love are shaped by awareness of what might have been.NPR Bestseller

News and Reviews

• Jan. 28-Feb. 3: Teen Lust, Gothic Fright And A History Of Introverts
• 'In One Person': A Tangled Gender-Bender

The End of the Wasp Season

A Novel

Detective Inspector Alex Morrow uncovers clues in the savage murder of a young woman in a wealthy suburb of Glasgow that may ultimately be linked to the suicide of a notorious millionaire banker 100 miles away.

News and Reviews

• Jan. 28-Feb. 3: Teen Lust, Gothic Fright And A History Of Introverts
• Sherlockian Mysteries That Will Keep You Tied Up

The Dinner

Meeting at an Amsterdam restaurant for dinner, two couples move from small talk to the wrenching shared challenge of their teenage sons' act of violence that has triggered a police investigation and revealed the extent to which each family will go to protect those it loves.NPR Bestseller

News and Reviews

• 'The Dinner' Offers Food For Thought
• 'The Dinner' Asks: What Will You Do To Protect Your Family?
• Exclusive First Read: 'The Dinner' By Herman Koch

The Outsiders

S.E. Hinton was just 16 years old when she wrote this novel about kids getting caught up in class struggles. Ponyboy is a greaser, from the wrong side of the tracks; he runs afoul of the upper-class Socs, leading to an epic rumble between the two gangs.

News and Reviews

• Rich Kids, Greasers And The Life-Changing Power Of 'The Outsiders'
• Your Favorites: 100 Best-Ever Teen Novels

Emmanuelle

News and Reviews

• 'Emmanuelle' And The Seductive Power Of Words

Insane City

Seth Weinstein is on his way to his destination wedding in Florida. He has survived an airport prank by his groomsmen, and he thinks it's going to be smooth sailing from now on. Little does he know what's in store: Russian gangsters, angry strippers, a pimp as big as the Death Star, a desperate Haitian refugee and her two children on the run from some very bad men, and an 11-foot albino Burmese python named Blossom.NPR Bestseller

News and Reviews

• Dave Barry's 'Insane' Miami Mixes Refugees, Gangsters, Escorts And A Burmese Python

Extra Yarn

With a supply of yarn that never runs out, Annabelle knits for everyone and everything in town until an evil archduke decides he wants the yarn for himself.

News and Reviews

• 'This Is Not My Hat' Wins Caldecott Medal For Picture Book Artistry

Baby Bear Sees Blue

Leaving the den as the weather warms, Baby Bear discovers blue birds, red strawberries, orange butterflies and other colorful things in nature.

News and Reviews

• 'This Is Not My Hat' Wins Caldecott Medal For Picture Book Artistry

Unspoken

A Story From the Underground Railroad

A young girl's courage is tested when she discovers a runaway slave hiding in the barn.

News and Reviews

• 'This Is Not My Hat' Wins Caldecott Medal For Picture Book Artistry

Chloe And The Lion

News and Reviews

• 'This Is Not My Hat' Wins Caldecott Medal For Picture Book Artistry

And Then It's Spring

News and Reviews

• 'This Is Not My Hat' Wins Caldecott Medal For Picture Book Artistry

A Home For Bird

News and Reviews

• 'This Is Not My Hat' Wins Caldecott Medal For Picture Book Artistry

Oh, No!

Author Candace Fleming and illustrator Eric Rohmann present the comical story of a group of animals who repeat a refrain of dismay as they fall, one by one, into a deep hole.

News and Reviews

• 'This Is Not My Hat' Wins Caldecott Medal For Picture Book Artistry

Boot & Shoe

Boot and Shoe are dogs that live in the same house, eat from the same bowl and sleep in the same bed, but spend their days on separate porches until a squirrel mixes things up.

News and Reviews

• 'This Is Not My Hat' Wins Caldecott Medal For Picture Book Artistry

Tenth Of December

A collection of stories includes "Home," a wryly whimsical account of a soldier's return from war; "Victory Lap," a tale about an inventive abduction attempt; and the title story, in which a suicidal cancer patient saves the life of a young misfit.NPR Bestseller

News and Reviews

• George Saunders On Absurdism And Ventriloquism In 'Tenth Of December'
• George Saunders Lives Up To The Hype
• From George Saunders, A Dark 'December'

Gone Girl

After a woman disappears on her fifth wedding anniversary, her diary reveals hidden turmoil in her marriage. Her husband, desperate to clear himself of suspicion, realizes that something more disturbing than murder may have occurred.NPR Bestseller

News and Reviews

• In 2012's Best Mysteries, Mean Girls Rule
• Want A Winner? These Books Made The Critics' Cut
• Sail Into Summer With Novel Picks From Alan Cheuse

A Memory Of Light

In the conclusion to the Wheel of Time series, all of humanity is in peril as Rand al'Thor moves forward to break the seals on the Dark One's prison, and the Last Battle will determine the fate of the world.NPR Bestseller

News and Reviews

• Exclusive First Read: 'A Memory Of Light,' By Robert Jordan And Brandon Sanderson

Flight Behavior

Tired of living on a failing farm and suffering oppressive poverty, bored housewife Dellarobia Turnbow, on the way to meet a potential lover, is detoured by a miraculous event on the Appalachian mountainside. It ignites a media and religious firestorm that changes her life forever.NPR Bestseller

News and Reviews

• So Hot Right Now: Has Climate Change Created A New Literary Genre?
• Giving Wing To A Story Of Climate Change
• 'Flight Behavior' Weds Issues To A Butterfly Narrative

The Round House

When his mother, a tribal enrollment specialist on a reservation in North Dakota, slips into an abyss of depression after being brutally attacked, 13-year-old Joe Coutts sets out with his three friends to find the person who destroyed his family.NPR Bestseller

News and Reviews

• Now You're Talking! The Year's Best Book Club Reads
• 'Round House,' 'Forevers' Win National Book Awards
• Hear The 2012 National Book Award Nominees

The Twelve Tribes Of Hattie

In 1923, 15-year-old Hattie Shepherd flees Georgia, hoping for a chance at a better life. Instead, she marries a man who will bring her nothing but disappointment and watches helplessly as her firstborn twins succumb to an illness a few pennies could have prevented. Hattie gives birth to nine more children, whom she raises with grit and mettle and not an ounce of the tenderness they crave. Captured here in 12 luminous narrative threads, their lives tell the story of a mother's monumental courage and the journey of a nation.NPR Bestseller

News and Reviews

• Oprah's Second Pick: A First-Time Novelist

Sweet Tooth

Recruited into MI5 against a backdrop of the Cold War in 1972, Cambridge student Serena Frome, a compulsive reader, is assigned to infiltrate the literary circle of a promising young writer whose politics align with those of the government.NPR Bestseller

News and Reviews

• Delicious Deceit Abounds In McEwan's 'Sweet Tooth'
• Ian McEwan's 'Sweet Tooth' Leaves A Sour Taste
• Ian McEwan's 'Sweet Tooth' Pits Spy Vs. Scribe

Dear Life

Stories

A new collection of stories by the author of The View from Castle Rock illuminates moments that shape a life — from a dream or a sexual act to simple twists of fate — and is set in the countryside and towns of Lake Huron.NPR Bestseller

News and Reviews

• Short Stories To Savor On A Winter Weekend
• Munro Weighs The Twists And Turns Of This 'Dear Life'

This Is How You Lose Her

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao presents a lyrical collection of stories that explore the heartbreak and radiance of love as it is shaped by passion, betrayal and the echoes of intimacy.NPR Bestseller

News and Reviews

• 10 Books To Help You Recover From A Tense 2012
• Hear The 2012 National Book Award Nominees
• Roving Eyes, Wandering Hands In 'How You Lose Her'

The River Swimmer

Novellas

Two novellas provide insight on the human condition as a 60-year-old art history academic embarks on an unexpected journey of discovery, and a young farm boy is drawn to the water of Lake Michigan as an escape.NPR Bestseller

News and Reviews

• Harrison's New Novellas Present Men In Full

The Casual Vacancy

The early death of a small-town councilman reveals deep-rooted conflicts in the seemingly idyllic community of Pagford, which rapidly deteriorates in the face of cultural disputes, generation clashes and a volatile election.NPR Bestseller

News and Reviews

• Poverty Informs J.K. Rowling's New Novel For Adults

The Yellow Birds

In Al Tafar, Iraq, 21-year-old Pvt. John Bartle and 18-year-old Pvt. Daniel Murphy cling to life as their platoon launches a bloody battle for the city. The two men do all they can to protect each other from the forces that are pressing in: the insurgents, physical fatigue and the mental stress that comes from constant danger. As reality begins to blur into a hazy nightmare, Murphy becomes increasingly unmoored from the world around him and Bartle takes actions he could never have imagined.NPR Bestseller

News and Reviews

• April 22-May 5: Julia Child, Jonathan Franzen And Herta Muller
• Hear The 2012 National Book Award Nominees
• Stories From A New Generation Of American Soldiers

The Paris Wife

The Paris Wife follows the life of Ernest Hemingway's first wife, Hadley, as she navigates 1920s Paris.NPR Bestseller

News and Reviews

• New In Paperback Nov. 26- Dec. 2
• A Passion For The Past: 2011's Best Historical Fiction
• 'The Paris Wife' Dives Into Hemingway's First Big Love

Life Of Pi

After the tragic sinking of a cargo ship, one solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild blue Pacific. The crew of the surviving vessel consists of a hyena, a zebra (with a broken leg), a female orangutan, a 450-pound Bengal tiger and Pi, a 16-year-old Indian boy. The scene is set for one of the most extraordinary pieces of literary fiction of recent years.NPR Bestseller, Literary Award Winner

News and Reviews

• Sunken Treasures: Books About Survival At Sea

Death Comes To Pemberley

Pemberley is thrown into chaos after Elizabeth Bennett's disgraced sister Lydia arrives and announces that her husband, Wickham, has been murdered.NPR Bestseller

News and Reviews

• Dec. 31-Jan. 6: A Whodunit, A Mountain Survival And A JFK Affair
• In 'Pemberley,' James Picks Up Where Austen Left Off
• 'Pride And Prejudice' Meets 'Clue' At 'Pemberley'

Wolf Hall

Assuming the power recently lost by the disgraced Cardinal Wolsey, Thomas Cromwell counsels a mercurial Henry VIII on the latter's efforts to marry Anne Boleyn against the wishes of Rome, a successful endeavor that comes with a dangerous price.NPR Bestseller, Literary Award Winner

News and Reviews

• Mantel Takes Up Betrayal, Beheadings In 'Bodies'
• New In Paperback, Sept. 6-12

The Sense Of An Ending

Tony Webster is a retired divorced man in his mid-60s who, after receiving notice of an unexpected bequest, is pulled back into a "powerful recollection of strong emotions" from his past. This leads to a reassessment of the accuracy of his memories, a rueful realization of how much he'd gotten wrong, and a harsh re-evaluation of his passive approach to life.NPR Bestseller, Literary Award Winner

News and Reviews

• New In Paperback June 4-10
• Conversation Starters: 2011's Top 5 Book Club Picks
• What Sticks: Five 2011 Books That Stay With You

Fifty Shades Of Grey

Growing out of a piece of fan fiction that recast Twilight's Bella and Edward in sexier scenarios, Fifty Shades of Grey tells the steamy affair of a student journalist and an intriguing young entrepreneur.NPR Bestseller

News and Reviews

• Book News: Fifty Shades Of Greenbacks: Random House Profits Jump
• 'Fifty Shades' Is The One That Got Away. At Least From Me
• Original Fiction In All The 'Shades' Of Fandom

The Snow Child

A childless couple working on a farm in the brutal landscape of 1920 Alaska discover a little girl living in the wilderness with a red fox and begin to love the strange, almost supernatural child as their own.NPR Bestseller

News and Reviews

• Revisiting A Sad Yet Hopeful Winter's Tale In 'The Snow Child'

The Language Of Flowers

A Novel

Victoria, the orphaned heroine of Vanessa Diffenbaugh's debut novel, is privy to a secret language of flowers that dates to Victorian England.NPR Bestseller

News and Reviews

• Speaking Of Foster Care In 'The Language Of Flowers'
• Overly Rosy Premise Proves Thorny In 'Flowers'

The Perks Of Being A Wallflower

In a thought-provoking, coming-of-age novel, teenager Charlie struggles to cope with the complex world of high school. He deals with the confusions of sex and love, the temptations of drugs and the pain of losing a close friend and favorite aunt.NPR Bestseller

News and Reviews

• Your Favorites: 100 Best-Ever Teen Novels
• Books With Class: Autumn Reads That Bring Back The School Daze
• Kids' Books with Lessons for Life

Cloud Atlas

David Mitchell, author of Number9Dream, recounts the connected stories of people from the past and the distant future, from a 19th century notary and an investigative journalist in the 1970s to a young man who searches for meaning in a post-apocalyptic world.NPR Bestseller

News and Reviews

• 'Cloud Atlas' a Series of Virtuosic, Soaring Stories
• Excerpt: 'Cloud Atlas: A Novel'
• 'Cloud Atlas' a Favorite for Booker Prize

State Of Wonder

A researcher at a pharmaceutical company, Marina Singh must step out of her comfort zone when she is sent into the heart of the Amazonian delta to check on a field team that has been silent for two years — a dangerous assignment that forces Marina to confront the ghosts of her past.NPR Bestseller

News and Reviews

• New In Paperback May 7-13
• Year-End Wrap-Up: The 10 Best Novels Of 2011
• Conversation Starters: 2011's Top 5 Book Club Picks

The Night Circus

Waging a fierce competition for which they have trained since childhood, circus magicians Celia and Marco unexpectedly fall in love and share a fantastical romance that manifests in fateful ways.NPR Bestseller

News and Reviews

• New In Paperback July 2-8
• 'Night Circus' Comes To Town With Magic, Mystery
• Romance And Magic Dazzle In Dreamy 'Night Circus'

Rules Of Civility

A chance encounter with a handsome banker in a jazz bar on New Year's Eve 1938 catapults Wall Street secretary Katey Kontent into the upper echelons of New York society, where she befriends a shy multimillionaire, an Upper East Side ne'er-do-well and a single-minded widow. NPR Bestseller

News and Reviews

• New In Paperback: June 25-July 1
• Booksellers' Picks: Catch The Year's Freshest Reads
• NPR Bestsellers: Hardcover Fiction, Week Of Aug. 4, 2011

Home

Embittered Korean War veteran Frank Money struggles against trauma and racism to rescue his medically abused sister and work through identity-shattering memories.NPR Bestseller

News and Reviews

• Finders Keepers: 2012's Books To Hang On To
• Sail Into Summer With Novel Picks From Alan Cheuse
• 'Home': Toni Morrison's Taut, Triumphant New Novel

The Expats

In The Expats, American Kate Moore is a working mother who finds herself abroad in Luxembourg after her husband is offered a banking job. As she becomes increasingly suspicious about her husband's job, Kate discovers the situation she's living in is a maze of intrigue filled with underlying secrets.NPR Bestseller

News and Reviews

• Jan. 21-27: A Robbery, An Assassin And A Writer's Pilgrimage
• Secrets And Lies Overseas In 'The Expats'

Canada

After his parents are arrested and imprisoned for robbing a bank, 15-year-old Dell Parsons is taken in by Arthur Remlinger, who — unbeknownst to Dell — is hiding a dark and violent nature that interferes with Dell's quest to find grace and peace on the prairie of Saskatchewan.NPR Bestseller

News and Reviews

• Jan. 21-27: A Robbery, An Assassin And A Writer's Pilgrimage
• 10 Books To Help You Recover From A Tense 2012
• Want A Winner? These Books Made The Critics' Cut

Invisible Cities

In Kublai Khan's garden, at sunset, the young Marco Polo diverts the aged emperor from his obsession with the impending end of his empire with tales of countless cities past, present, and future

News and Reviews

• Urban Oases: Getting Lost in 'Invisible Cities'

The Last Girlfriend on Earth

And Other Love Stories

Simon Rich's new collection of stories explores love in its varied forms: from God and his long-term girlfriend to a girl and her imaginary goat.

News and Reviews

• Relationships And Rocket Ships In 'Last Girlfriend'

Sylvia

A young Manhattan couple struggles to survive in the early 1960s when they get caught up in drugs, sexual fantasias, paranoia, and self-destructive violence.

News and Reviews

• Fiction Truer Than Fact: A Haunting Autobiographical Novel