New Book Releases - March 2012

When I Was a Child I Read Books is a series of essays on life and faith by Marilynne Robinson, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Gilead. Some of the essays are personal, but many focus on her bigger themes rather than personal life.

Lauren Groff's debut novel, The Monsters of Templeton, was one of our Top 10 Books of 2008. Arcadia takes place in a 1960s commune. It follows a young boy, Bit, as he grows in the commune and as it falls apart.

Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent, tries his hand at fiction in Monday Mornings. Monday Mornings is about the time each week when surgeons reflect on their mistakes and outcomes. It follows five surgeons and uses the Morbidity and Mortality conference as a backdrop, exploring the personal and professional failings of the characters and how the learn from their mistakes.

The Gods of Gotham is a debut crime novel by Lyndsay Faye. It takes place in 19th century New York and involves issues with Irish immigrants.

Anne Lamott's Operating Instructions chronicled her son Sam's first year of life. It was honest, funny and an easy read for new parents. Now Sam is all grown up! At nineteen, he was expecting his first child and Lamott was becoming a grandmother. Some Assembly Required is the story of this next transition for Anne and Sam.

Mudwoman by Joyce Carol Oates follows a woman who is now a president of an Ivy League college, having risen from a poor childhood where she was abandoned in the mudflats as a baby. The woman now wrestles with her place and teeters on a nervous breakdown as she tries to lead.

Lionel Shriver wrote The New Republic in 1998, but after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, postponed publishing the novel. The New Republic involves terrorism and takes place on a fake peninsula in Portugal. It has a sense of humor, but Shriver felt Americans would be able to receive that at this point.