The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches Tops the LibraryReads List!

The January 2013 LibraryReads Top Ten List has been announced and we are thrilled to have our first #1 with The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches: A Flavia de Luce Novel by Alan Bradley! A huge thank you to all the librarians who cast their votes.

The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches: A Flavia de Luce Novel
By Alan Bradley

“Flavia de Luce is still on the loose! This time, the almost-twelve-year-old prodigy explores some tantalizing mysteries involving her own family. Flavia uncovers surprising secrets about the characters we know and love and meets some fascinating new people, including a precocious distant cousin. You’ll enjoy seeing new depths in Flavia–this novel takes the series in an exciting direction.”
—Nancy Russell, Columbus Metropolitan Library, Columbus, OH

A Star for Mrs. Blake: Novel
By April Smith

“A little-known slice of American history receives meticulous, elegant treatment in this compelling novel about a group of mothers who travel to post-WWI Europe to visit the graves of their fallen soldier-sons. Cora Blake, grieving the loss of her only child, pulls the group to provide support on their difficult pilgrimage.  Sure to be a sleeper hit with book groups looking for heart-tugging history.”
—Kaite Stover, Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City, MO

Little Failure: A Memoir
By Gary Shteyngart

“Little Failure  is the marvelous tale of the Shteyngart family’s journey from Leningrad to Queens in the 1970s. Gary Shteyngart captures an amazing snapshot of that time in history, and this engaging memoir is suffused with conflict, love, and a lot of hilarity.”
—Laura Scott, Park Ridge Public Library, Park Ridge, IL

The First True Lie: A Novel
By Marina Mander

“An unusual, well-written story told by a young boy who lives with his talented, but troubled mother in a city apartment in Italy. One morning, Luca finds his mother dead, and his worst fears paralyze him. How long can he hide the truth from his teachers and classmates? Luca uses what he loves most, words, to reach a place where he can finally open the door to others. An excellent reading group selection.”
—Margaret Donovan, Cary Memorial Library, Lexington, MA

A Highly Unlikely Scenario, or a Neetsa Pizza Employee’s Guide to Saving the World: A Novel
By Rachel Cantor

“Leonard works for Neetsa Pizza, a Pythagorean pizza chain, in the near-ish future. His job is to take calls, listen to complaints and help his customers achieve maximum pizza happiness. His employee manual gives him an answer for every scenario–until he gets a call from Marco, who seems to be calling from another time or space. Think of Terry Pratchett crossed with Douglas Adams.”
—Jane Jorgenson, Madison Public Library, Madison, WI

With January in the record books, it’s time to look ahead to February titles. Below are a few of our favorites we’d like to recommend. Vote by January 1st for February Reads titles. February Staff Favorites Meet Darrow and Enter The Red Rising Trilogy! Red Rising By Pierce Brown Red Rising is the story of a society in a desolate future, driven by class conflict and shaken by the tremors of an impending revolution. But more than that, it’s the story of Darrow—a secret revolutionary who is inspired not only by a longing for social justice, but by lost love. “Brown’s debut novel…is reminiscent of both Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Gamesand William Golding’s The Lord of the Flies but has a dark and twisted power of its own that will captivate readers and leave them wanting more.”—Library Journal (starred review) Click to Request an eGalley. Follow the author @Pierce_Brown.

Under the Wide and Starry Sky: A Novel By Nancy Horan Under the Wide and Starry Skychronicles the unconventional love affair of Scottish literary giant Robert Louis Stevenson, author of classics includingTreasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and American divorcee Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne. They meet in rural France in 1875 and start a turbulent love affair that will last two decades and span the world. Horan has recreated a love story that is as unique, passionate, and overwhelmingly powerful as the one between Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Cheney depicted so memorably in Loving Frank. Click to Read an Excerpt. Click to Request an eGalley.

Dept. of Speculation: A Novel By Jenny Offill Dept. of Speculation is a portrait of a marriage. It is also a beguiling rumination on the mysteries of intimacy, trust, faith, knowledge, and the condition of universal shipwreck that unites us all. Jenny Offill’s heroine, referred to in these pages as simply “the wife,” once exchanged love letters with her husband postmarked Dept. of Speculation, their code name for all the uncertainty that inheres in life and in the strangely fluid confines of a long relationship. “If Rainer Maria Rilke had written a novel, it might look something like this…Lyrical…Philosophically rich…Moments of literary experimentation worthy of Virginia Woolf.” —Kirkus Click to Request an eGalley.

The Martian: A Novel By Andy Weir Apollo 13 meets Castaway in this grippingly detailed, brilliantly ingenious man-vs-nature survival thriller-set on the surface of Mars. Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first men to walk on the surface of Mars. Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first man to die there. “Riveting…a tightly constructed and completely believable story of a man’s ingenuity and strength in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.”—Booklist Click to Request an eGalley.

The Winter People: A Novel By Jennifer McMahon The most mysterious legend of West Hall, VT is that of Sara Harrison Shea, who, in 1908, was found dead just months after the tragic death of her daughter. Now, in present day, nineteen-year-old Ruthie lives in Sara’s farmhouse. Ruthie wakes one morning to find that her mother, Alice, has vanished. Searching for clues, she finds a copy of Sara’s diary. As Ruthie gets sucked deeper into the mystery of Sara’s fate, she discovers that she’s not the only person who’s desperately looking for someone that they’ve lost. Click to Read an Excerpt. Click to Request an eGalley. ** Jennifer McMahon will sign ARCs at ALA Midwinter on Saturday 1/25 from 2-3pm in the Random House Booth #831.

For information on how to promote the January titles at your library, visit LibraryReads.org.

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