Shanghai Girls

by Lisa See

 

From the author of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and Peony in Love comes a new novel about two sisters who leave Shanghai to find new lives in 1930s Los Angeles. May and Pearl are beautiful, sophisticated, and well-educated, but their family is on the verge of bankruptcy. Hoping to improve their social standing, May and Pearl’s parents arrange for their daughters to marry “Gold Mountain men” who have come from Los Angeles to find brides. Shangai Girls is a novel about two sisters, two cultures, and the struggle to find a new life in America while still bound to the old.

 

The Lightning Thief

by Rick Riordan

Percy Jackson is a good kid, but he can't seem to focus on his schoolwork or control his temper. And lately, being away at boarding school is only getting worse. Percy could have sworn his pre-algebra teacher turned into a monster and tried to kill him. Percy's mom decides its time that he knew the truth about where he came from. She sends Percy to Camp Half-Blood, a summer camp for demigods (on Long Island), where he learns that the father he never knew is Poseidon, God of the Sea. Soon a mystery unfolds and together with his friends, one a satyr and the other the demigod daughter of Athena, Percy sets out on a quest across the United States to reach the gates of the Underworld (located in a recording studio in Hollywood) and prevent a catastrophic war between the gods. But to succeed on his quest, Percy will have to unravel a treachery more powerful than the gods themselves.

Let the Great World Spin

by Colum McCann

Let the Great World Spin was the 2009 winner of The National Book Award for Fiction. The novel focuses on the lives of various New Yorkers on the day in 1974 when French trapeze artist Phillip Petit walked a tight rope between the World Trade Center towers. McCann has called his book an act of hope written, in part, as a response to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. 

Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

by Stieg Larsson

This debut thriller is the first in a trilogy from the late Stieg Larsson and a serious page-turner. Harriet Vanger, a scion of one of Sweden's wealthiest families disappeared over forty years ago. All these years later, her aged uncle continues to seek the truth. He hires Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently trapped by a libel conviction, to investigate. Blomkvist is aided by the pieced and tattooed punk prodigy Lisbeth Salander. Together they tap into a vein of unfathomable iniquity and astonishing corruption. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo combines murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue into one satisfyingly complex and entertainingly atmospheric novel.